Archive for Toyota

We may see a second hybrid vehicle being introduced into our local market soon as a Thai CBU model, the Toyota Camry Hybrid, as Toyota Motor Corporation will begin assembly of the hybrid D-segment vehicle at its Thai Gateway plant in the Chachoengsao Province southeast of Bangkok next year.

The Chachoengsao plant current produces Toyota’s monocoque vehicles such as the Camry, Corolla, Vios, Wish and the Yaris, while its two other plants produce IMV vehicles such as the Hilux and Fortuner.

“Thailand is the first ASEAN country to build hybrid vehicles. As the Camry has
received a warm welcome from Thai customers, we are sure these customers will be satisfied not only with the product but also with its environmental performance,” said Toyota Motor Thailand President Mitsuhiro Sonoda.

I’m not really sure whether the Camry Hybrid will use Australian Aurion Presara styling (ASEAN Camrys use this styling) or the funkier American Camry styling. There is a Camry Hybrid in the US that uses the American styling. It uses a 2AZ-FXE engine, a 2.4 liter VVT-i Toyota Direct Injection engine that runs on the Atkinson cycle, producing 147 horsepower at 6,000rpm and 187Nm of torque at 4,400rpm.

This is paired to a 30kW (40 horsepower) electric motor that can produce 270Nm of torque from 0 to 1,500rpm. This hybrid powertrain sends power to the front wheels via an electronically controlled CVT gearbox.

Toyota will later add another assembly base for the Camry Hybrid in Australia in 2010.

That red blur that you see above is Toyota’s TRD Aurion Pro-Facfory Xtreme, which made its debut at the Willowbank Raceway in Queensland, Australia last week.

Toyota claims the TRD Aurion Pro-Facfory Xtreme produces over 1740 horsepower from its turbocharged 6 cylinder engine and can get up to 100km/h from a standstill in less than 1 second. The car can achieve a top speed of over 350km/h.

Now that’s truly insane… wonder if those numbers are real or just something theoretical. Imagine the traction needed to get up to 100km/h in less than 1 second, plus would the turbo boost kick in that fast? I’d imagine a big turbine with lots of lag to get it up to those horsepower figures.

Toyota has updated its Toyota FCHV fuel cell vehicle with a new FC Stack that extends the range of the vehicle considerably.

The FCHV’s original hydrogen storage system could store 148 liters of hydrogen at 35 MPa maximum storage pressure. The new system in the new Toyota FCHV-adv concept vehicle stores 156 liters at a double the maximum pressure - 70 MPa. The result is an increase of maximum cruising range from approximately 330km to a very usable 760km according to the JC08 test cycle, or 830km according to the Japan 10-15 test cycle.

Other contributors to the significantly improved range is a fuel efficiency improvement of 25% through various measures such as improving fuel cell unit performance, a better brake energy regeneration system, and an auxiliary system that consumes less power.

The new fuel cell system can also start at a lower temperature, making it usable in cold regions with ambient temperatures as low as -30 degrees Celcius.

Full specs of the old Toyota FCHV and the new Toyota FCHV-adv found after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Toyota FCHV-adv: FCHV with extended range

I am not sure if this source is reliable, but Edmunds claims that Toyota and Subaru have decided that the Toyota-badged version of the upcoming co-developed boxer-engined rear wheel drive coupe will only be sold in Japan, while Subaru will market it internationally.

Edmunds further added that the companies have decided to mimic the dimensions and power to weight ratio of the now discontinued Honda Integra Type R, so if that is true, expect about 200 horsepower and a wheelbase of around 2400mm.

Related Posts:
Upcoming RWD Subaru coupe causes marketing team to worry
New Toyota/Subaru boxer-powered RWD sports car to arrive in 2011

Reader CT mailed in these photos of a Toyota Vios J that he managed to snap, which indicates that a barebones Toyota Vios with a manual transmission is due to be launched quite soon.

The Toyota Vios J-spec trim level features steel wheels (hubcaps are likely to be added on the final production model) and does not have foglamps on the front bumper. Taking a look in the interior (photo after the jump), you will find a dark interior colour scheme and a single DIN CD player rather than an integrated unit.

There doesn’t seem to be any SRS Airbag logo on the steering wheel shown in the photo of the interior, so we can assume for now that the J-spec model will not have airbags. Let’s hope ABS stays.

Look after the jump for another 3 photos.

Click here to read the rest of Toyota Vios J with manual transmission spotted!

Toyota has launched the latest generation Toyota Alphard MPV, and this time around the Alphard also gets a twin with minor exterior differences portraying a more aggressive look called the Toyota Vellfire.

Toyota has been known to do this with its JDM cars - the Toyota Noah has an evil twin called the Toyota Voxy, and the Toyota Allion’s twin is called the Toyota Premio.

As expected, the new Toyota Alphard is a slightly toned down production version of the Toyota FT-MV concept showed at last year’s 2007 Tokyo Motor Show. Toyota says the Alphard design represents “elegance and refinement”, while the Vellfire represents “power and innovation”.

The name Vellfire was derived by combining the words velvet and fire. The vehicles have slightly different front and rear looks, with the Vellfire having two-stepped headlamps at the front, and clear lense tail lamps at the rear. Both vehicles also feature rear wipers that fold away into the roof spoiler so that the rear looks cleaner when you do not need the rear wipers.

The Alphard (and Vellfire) is larger now, with a longer wheelbase of 2,950mm versus the previous generation’s 2,900mm wheelbase.

Each MPV has two engine choices - either a 2AZ-FE 2.4 liter DOHC VVT-i inline-4 engine mated to a Super CVT-i stepless gearbox with the option of 7 virtual gear ratios, or a 2GR-FE 3.5 liter V6 engine with a 6-speed Super ECT transmission.

The MPVs feature S-VCS (Steering-assisted Vehicle Stability Control) which can correct steering angles as well as adjust power and brake in efforts to stabilize the MPV.

More images of the two MPVs and a video of the Vellfire after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of New generation Toyota Alphard and Vellfire

Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive badging will soon be phased out, according to Toyota Motor Sales USA’s president Jim Lentz. Instead, future hybrid-only models by Toyota will have Prius badging, and conventionally powered cars that also have a hybrid model added to its range like the Lexus RX will just be called the RX Hybrid.

It seems that the marketing dollars spent on building the Hybrid Synergy Drive badging into a brand is not really working, with consumers being focused on the Prius name instead. Toyota wants to expand its hybrid-only passenger car range into a few models rather than the current one-model range, and all of these cars will be called Prius, perhaps as a suffix or something similiar.

Source

Subaru is worried that its upcoming “AE86 spiritual successor” rear-wheel drive coupe that it will share with Toyota may erode its image as a niche all-wheel drive specialist, according to Subaru’s overseas marketing chief Masatsugu Nagato.

Its marketing team also has to figure out how to differentiate its own version of the car from the Toyota product, as it is very likely that there will be many major markets where both cars will be sold side by side as there will not be Toyota-only or Subaru-only designated markets.

Then again, we can look at Audi, a car manufacturer that is much older than Subaru. Audi is now rather famous for its quattro all-wheel drive system despite having many front-wheel drive models in its line-up. Is rear-wheel drive for the new small Subaru really a cause for worry? At least it still uses a horizontally-opposed engine! As long as it is a fantastic drive, they should do fine. After all, the rear wheel drive boxer engine specialist image already has another car to “taint” it - the new Subaru Justy.

According to Autocar UK, the Subaru boxer engine in question will be a normally aspirated 2.0 liter inline-4 boxer putting out 175 horsepower for the base model, with a turbocharged 2.5 liter model to come later, possibly with all-wheel drive. Autocar says they have viewed top-secret sketches of the car and have produced the artist impression shown in the thumbnail above based on those sketches. You can click the thumbnail to view the full image. It looks rather like a Scion tC crossed with a Hyundai Coupe.

Related Posts:
New Toyota-Subaru boxer-powered RWD sports car to arrive in 2011!

UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd has issued a statement regarding the recent power window recall campaign in the US and clarified that its local models are not affected by the recall.

As previously reported, the models affected are the Toyota Matrix and GM’s Pontiac Vibe based on the Matrix. The affected part is a glass bolt on the driver and front passenger side door, which might loosen and cause an abnormal rattling sound.

Perhaps some customers have called up UMW Toyota Motor with questions expressing concern regarding this recall, so UMW Toyota Motor has decided to respond with a press release. It’s actually interesting to observe recall activity worldwide as we can observe the activities of different car manufacturers around the world and how they handle the recalls. It will at the very least raise our expectations on how our homegrown manufacturers should behave.

But we should not confuse international recalls with local models and spread rumours around as many of the parts that go into cars are localised according to region, so a part that is defective in one region could and should be perfectly fine in another.

Toyota has launched a limited 500 unit run of the UK market Toyota Hilux Invincible. The special edition features a unique look and a more powerful engine.

The Hilux’s 3.0 liter D4-D common rail turbodiesel engine in the standard model is fitted with a Toyota Motorsports diesel engine performance kit, increasing maximum horsepower to 194 hp and a very nice 430Nm of torque from 1,600rpm all the way up to 3,200rpm, up from 343Nm. 0 to 100km/h takes 10.5 seconds, a massive improvement from the standard truck’s 13 seconds.

In the interior, the special edition Hilux gets two-tone leather heated seats. Other unique bits of equipment include special 15 inch alloys and a stainless steel mesh grille.