Autoblog

Toyota is struggling to sell trucks and SUVs like everyone else, but unlike the competition, no full-time workers from stalled factories are getting laid off. The 4,500 workers at idled plants are instead bettering themselves through eduction by taking classes on safety, diversity, and Toyota history. They're also doing community service while on the clock and even some gardening. The workers will be learning how to work faster and smarter during the down time, and are even being shifted to busier plants on a temporary basis to help plants that are working beyond capacity to keep up with demand.

Toyota's plan to keep its workers busy at all costs isn't cheap, as about $50 million is being spent to keep workers busy with training programs. Of course, you can't please everyone and the plan isn't sitting well with all of Toyota's workforce, as workers at running factories don't like the fact that laid off workers are getting a leg up on training. A more skilled plant could have an advantage over others in getting earmarked for future products, so unaffected workers also want the extra training.

While expensive and a bit of a logistics nightmare, Toyota's plan is a good one if you can afford it. It should help create a more loyal, better trained workforce that also forges ties with the surrounding community. We bet Toyota hopes it will prevent any talk of unionizing, as well. And with Toyota's record profits over the past few years, $50 million is a drop in the corporate bucket.

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req., Image: Junko Kimura/Getty]

In the future, we'll eat all our meals from toothpaste tubes, everyone will be beautiful and healthy, and we won't need cars, what with the proliferation of nuclear-powered jet packs. Prediction is such thorny business, though Toyota isn't making such a fantastical claim by suggesting that each of its vehicles will have a hybrid option available by 2020. Wired's blog seems to agree that by 2020, hybrids will have proliferated like rabbits, and we'll be awash in electron propulsion systems.

We still feel a little cheated that eight years into the 21st century, we still don't have all those things promised to us fifty years ago, but at least automakers are hard at work pushing alternative systems toward viability. Justin Ward, a manager at the Toyota Technical Center overseeing advanced powertrain programs, told a Management Briefing Seminar in Traverse city that work continues on fuel cells to overcome challenges like climate extremes and range. Battery technology, too, will continue to advance, making the current Hybrid Synergy Drive even more efficient. Toyota is still holding off on diesels, and plug-ins present some issues when you consider where that electricity is generated, so it's looking like Toyota will continue to develop its fuel cell technology for the long term and bolster its hybrid offerings in the near future.

[Source: Auto News - sub req. Photo: itd.idaho.gov]

Click above for a high-res gallery of the Toyota FT-HS concept.

A report by Automotive News detailing Toyota's future products reveals that the automaker's focus will be realigned to meet new fuel efficiency standards and limiting high-powered and niche offerings.

On the hybrid side, the new Prius will debut in Detroit, with sales beginning in the spring of 2009 as a 2010 model. The nickel-metal hydride battery will remain, and because of that, the plug-in model will be delayed until a lithium ion battery is offered. The new Prius will be packing the Corolla's 1.8-liter four cylinder and the car will be an inch wider and a half-inch longer. The second hybrid model might not come to Detroit, but development is currently under way and sales will be limited to Japan.

The Supra revival has been shelved due to high mpg requirements, allowing Toyota to focus on its RWD coupe, jointly developed by Subaru. Also, there's only room for one body-on-frame SUV from the automaker, so the 4Runner will be re-engineered for the 2010 model year, will debut in either New York or Chicago, and the FJ Cruiser will complete its lifecycle and be dropped in the next few years.

The Sienna and Venza will be equipped with hybrid drivetrains in 2012, with the Sienna receiving a facelift late next year, along with more cargo space and room for third-row occupants.

The report goes on to state that the Corolla will be redesigned in 2013, along with the Matrix, the next Camry will receive a facelift in 2010, with the new model debuting in 2012, and the new Avalon will debut in 2011 as a 2012 model.


[Source: Automotive News – Sub. Req.]

Click above for high-res gallery of the 2008 Toyota Highlander

When the all-new Highlander launched last year, it came equipped with your choice of a 3.5L V6 or a 3.3L hybrid powerplant. Toyota is expanding the Highlander's powertrain lineup for 2009 by adding a more fuel efficient 2.7L four-cylinder engine. The new engine produces 187 horsepower at 5,800 RPM and 186 lb-ft at 4,100 RPM, making it the most powerful four cylinder engine in Toyota's lineup. Assisting the new 2.7L engine is a six-speed automatic transmission that Toyota says together will provide smooth acceleration and V6-like performance. EPA figures will be announced closer to the engine/transmission's January 2009 launch date, and they should be a few mpg better than the 3.5L engine's 18/24 figures.

The addition of a four-pot to the Highlander lineup will give customers a less expensive and more fuel efficient option in this model lineup, which should prove mighty popular. What remains to be seen is whether a 187-hp engine can properly motivate a 4,000-lb vehicle. We're guessing that since many Highlander buyers aren't likely all that interested in driving dynamics, the most important stat for Toyota's CUV will be its EPA number. Hit the jump to for Toyota's press release if you're looking for nitty gritty details.


[Source: Toyota]

According to Steve St. Angelo, a VP at Toyota North America, a healthy Detroit 3 is good for Toyota. While that may sound a bit odd or even patronizing, St. Angelo notes that the U.S. supplier base is working for both the Americans and Japanese. If one of their big clients like GM or Ford is in trouble, the effect to the supplier will in turn affect Toyota. What's more, the U.S. economy is closely tied in with the success of the automakers in Detroit and a depressed economy can only serve to hurt Toyota's U.S. sales numbers, a fact that is surely apparent when you glance at our By The Numbers posts over the past few months. Toyota's sales are still relatively strong, enough so that it has passed Ford to become America's second largest automaker and is currently knocking on GM's door (and giving them a spinning leg hook belly-to-back suplex) to take over the role as number one. So while a defeated member of the Detroit 3 may be bad for Toyota, a wounded one might be OK.

[Source: The Detroit News]

Click above for high-res pics of the 2008 Toyota Highlander from our review

Up to this point, all Highlanders destined for the U.S. have been built in Japan. Toyota had planned to start building a new, redesigned Highlander in late 2009 at its plant in Tupelo, Mississippi, a factory that is still under construction, but the rapidly slumping SUV market prompted it to postpone the vehicle's redesign to 2010. Things change quickly in this business, however, and because its plant in Princeton, Indiana that builds the full-size Tundra is now sitting idle, Toyota has decided to use that capacity to start building the Highlander in the fall of 2009. The Tupelo plant, meanwhile, will instead start building the Prius here in the U.S. when its construction is completed in 2010. All this flip flopping of production can be done because of the flexible manufacturing that was built into each of Toyota's plants, and the positive end result is that its workers can keep working rather than sitting at home without a paycheck.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

Click above for a high-res gallery of the Toyota Tundra.

The Toyota Tundra is the most competent pickup Toyota has ever produced, but the two-year-old truck has been hit hard by the harsh reality of the US auto slump. Gas prices and a sluggish housing industry have conspired to put a wet blanket on the Tundra party, and the San Antonio plant will be closed from August 8 until mid-November to allow dealers to clear out Tundra inventory. When the Texas plant does come back online, a portion of its production could wind up overseas.

At the Management Briefing Seminars, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky Inc. President Steve St. Angelo said some Tundras and Sequoias could be produced in the US and shipped overseas. While markets like Europe and Asia aren't likely to turn to trucks and SUVs in large numbers, both the Tundra and Sequoia could be a welcomed addition in the Middle East, where cheap gas prices makes big vehicles more acceptable. While the overseas truck market isn't likely to produce huge demand for the Tundra and Sequoia, the currently untapped markets could help the San Antonio plant come closer to running at its peak efficiency.



[Source: Auto News (subs req'd)]

Did Toyota get some silver? Did it get a little gold? What did it get, to keep the Camry Solara Convertible from the Gallows Pole*? According to Steve St. Angelo, president of Toyota's Kentucky operations and of no relation to Robert Plant, Toyota got a lot of grief from customers and dealers who didn't want to see the drop-top swinging from the Gallow's Pole. The Hangman was supposed to come for the Solara 'Vert this month, but production has now been extended for two full years. Automotive News reports that Toyota only sold 28,479 units of the Solara Coupe and Convertible in all of 2007, and while the majority were likely 'verts, the number still seems too low to argue that demand was high enough to give it two years' worth of extra production. St. Angelo also didn't clarify if the Solara Coupe would enjoy the convertible's amnesty or not. Regardless, the Hangman's wrong on this one and the Solara should be swinging.

*for those too young to remember Led Zeppelin's 'Gallows Pole', click here.

[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd]

Click above to for hi-res gallery of the new Yaris colors and models

Yaris: Not really cool or good looking for that matter. Factory photography: the cure for uncool. Toyota has released a couple of new colors for the Yaris Liftbacks - Yellow Jolt and Carmine Red Metallic. An ochreous or insect-derived hue doesn't instantly remove the Joe Camel nose or the S version's tacked on bodykit, but there's something sharp about the accessorized penalty box that Toyota's showing off here. The Yaris sedan gets a couple of more subdued colors - Zephyr Blue Metallic and Blue Streak Metallic. Of course, new colors don't make the Yaris any better, but we must grudgingly admit that while it doesn't stir our souls, it's a decent lob over the plate. Though the price can get uncomfortably close to $20,000 (yikes!). Take a look at the gallery below, which also includes shots of the new five-door hatch model in faux sporty S trim. Indeed, the Yaris has never looked better, and likely never will.


[Source: Open Road]

Toyota is not used to seeing its profit margins drop, as the Japanese auto giant has enjoyed increased profit for nine straight years. Expect that run to end this year, though, as Toyota is discovering that it is not immune to the downturn of the American auto market. For the year, Toyota has revised its sales forecast from 9.06 million units to an estimated 8.74 million. For the first quarter of the year that ended in June, Toyota has also announced that its operating profit took a 39% plunge from lower sales in both the United States and Europe, the increased value of the Yen and higher cost of raw materials. Oh, and then there's the pesky problems of leases. Still, Toyota sales remain fairly strong in this sinking market and a profit is a profit. We'd imagine that this is a problem any one of the Detroit 3 would love to have on its hands.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]