Toyota News

Innovative and interesting designs are rewarded each year with a 'red dot', from world renowned design institution, the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen, one of Europe's oldest and most highly reputed design centers. This year a number of interesting entries in the automobile category came away...

Toyota's MR2 sports car may have only bowed out of the market less than two years ago but the popular nameplate may soon see a revival, and this time around it could even be sold exclusively as a hybrid. The news comes from Toyota's executive vice-president, Masatami Takimoto, who revealed during...

Scion has confirmed plans to unveil a new “micro-subcompact” concept car at the upcoming New York Auto Show. The concept will reflect Scion's youthful image and represents a new segment for the brand aimed toward the growing urbanization trend. This basically means that Scion will be...

Executives of the Toyota Motor Corporation considered following fellow struggling Japanese carmaker out of Formula 1, a top chief of the Cologne based team has admitted. Tadashi Yamashina, team principal and chairman of the marque's motor racing arm Toyota Motorsport GmbH, told a news conference...

If the futurism of the 1950s and 1960s taught us anything as a culture, it's that what seems a sure thing today may prove laughably optimistic in a few decades. Stefan Jacoby, CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, thinks a similar situation is playing out with electric cars today. Jacoby's main...

Th!nk's financial saga has seen it bounce from owner to owner, into bankruptcy and back out, and now it's looking for government aid, but still its vehicles and ideas are inspiring people. The FROST design study, for instance, was penned by a Norwegian design student as a Th!nk concept, intended to...

No stone is being left unturned in carmakers' hunt for more and better safety technology, and Toyota is often at or near the forefront of that search. Today the company has released a new system: the world's first rear-seat center airbag. Designed to protect occupants in a side-impact from...

Toyota will be hosting a celebrity race next month with a star-studded field of competitors intended to draw audiences and help raise funding for numerous charities. A total of 20 drivers will compete and already confirmed for the event are a number of A-list actors including Keanu Reeves, who...

After months of conjecture and Toyota’s own claims for the fuel-economy of its new Prius, came the release last week of “preliminary” Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ratings for the new model. In their haste, the EPA and Toyota had made a slight error in those original...

Pininfarina gave up contract manufacturing last year to focus solely on building electric vehicles (EVs). At the Geneva Motor Show this week, the company has reworked their B0 Concept into a more palatably-named BLUECAR EV, with more details on its expected production plans. The B0/Bluecar EV was...

A consortium of industry agencies and the United Nations wants the world to cut its vehicular emissions by 50% by 2050. The cutely-named '50 by 50' plan calls on governments around the world to cut back voluntarily, since there is no real enforcement mechanism. "We're not saying that nobody can...

It seems these days that a new electric sports car concept is announced almost every month but it's not often that we get to see the actual concept in the metal, so to speak, or in the case of the new Lampo, in the carbon-fiber composite. The Lampo electric roadster is the latest creation of Swiss...

Joining Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV Sport Air Concept at this week’s Geneva Motor Show is the new Prototype i-MiEV, a closer to production version of the Japanese carmaker’s upcoming all-electric car. The Prototype i-MiEV is based around the currentregular i-MiEV all-electric hatch that...

Driving excitement and hybrid power are concepts rarely uttered in the same breath, but Giugiaro is promising the fastest hybrid in the world with a concept just revealed at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show. The official renderings of the car show a sleek and sporty - almost supercar-like profile, yet...

The Big 3 Detroit carmakers have been capturing the world's headlines with their economic and product woes for the past several months, but the truth of the situation is that the whole industry is struggling. Toyota recently announced its first operating loss in 71 years, and then decided to push...

Mitsubishi's highly anticipated i-MiEV electric car prototype is set to be revealed this week at the Geneva Motor Show, but ahead of the car's unveiling the Japanese company has announced an interesting development. Mitsubishi has just inked a Memorandum of Understanding regarding cooperation...

Toyota will be updating its European lineup with the debut of the all-new Verso MPV at next week’s Geneva Motor Show. The vehicle is loosely based on the U.S. market Matrix but offers more space, comfort and practicality, and benefits from the latest occupant and pedestrian safety features...

One of the unseen forces of the automotive industry, Magna Steyr is a contract manufacturer that produces some of the best cars in the world, including the Aston Martin Rapide, the Porsche Boxster and Cayman from 2012, the Mini crossover and more. Their automotive prowess is without question, then...

The bosses at Audi are gunning for their German rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz, announcing this weekend a goal to sell more cars than either in Europe by 2010. Audi's continental domination will be followed soon after by the Volkswagen Group's rise to the number one spot in the world, if the company...

Toyota already offers one of the world’s most advanced pre-crash safety systems for several of its high-end models, such as the Japanese-market Crown sedan and Lexus LS flagship, but the company has set out to improve its system by adding several new features. Simply called Pre-crash Safety...