Toyota News

After driving a prototype version of Toyota’s new minicar, the carmaker’s President Katsuaki Watanabe came away content with the design but sought more in terms of cost reduction. The new model is aimed at emerging markets such as India, China, Russia and Brazil and, despite its...

Following the debut of the Volkswagen up! concept earlier today, Toyota has revealed its own minicar rival with the unveiling of the new iQ. Toyota’s new concept is significantly smaller than the up!, measuring just 2,980mm in length, but still has room for four with occupants sitting in a...

Despite record sales Toyota is still without a low priced sports car, something its other Japanese rivals are so well-known for. This year saw it retire the mid-engined MR2 two-seater, the last of a trio of sporty cars that also included the Supra, and the slightly less focused Celica. However...

Toyota admits lithium ion battery technology is still too hazardous to use in its production cars despite GM announcing earlier this year that it expects to have a plug-in hybrid vehicle with lithium batteries by the end of the decade. The Japanese giant doesn’t want to rush out products with...

Toyota has admitted harboring at least a superficial interest in F1's reigning double world champion Fernando Alonso. With the Spaniard plainly unhappy at McLaren in 2007, his former boss and mentor Flavio Briatore this week explained that "everybody" in pitlane would be interested in making a bid...

Toyota has confirmed its plans to build a new compact diesel engine for the European market, with the first car to get the new engine likely to be the new Auris hatch. Isuzu is a specialist in building diesel powertrains and have been in talks with Toyota since November of last year. The first new...

Toyota will be launching a new version of the Aurion sedan sold in Australia that will become the one of the most powerful FWD production cars on sale. The supercharged V6 Aurion sedan will also be the first official vehicle from Toyota branded under the TRD label. The new car comes in two...

New reports have emerged from Japan confirming that Toyota is working on a new low cost sports car scheduled to go on sale before the end of the decade and priced around two million yen (US$16,780). Toyota will build the car with help from Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru’s parent company), who...

The 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid has officially been revealed at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show. Click here for all the details and images. Toyota will be delaying the introduction of its next-gen hybrids models because of fears that the new lithium-ion technology is unsafe. There were plans to launch more...

Toyota has told its parts suppliers to expect its production numbers to surpass ten million vehicles next year as sales numbers in the US and new emerging markets continue to grow. Execs are predicting production will rise in ’08 by six percent on current levels, topping out at an estimated...

Toyota has announced today that it has developed a new plug-in hybrid prototype based on the Prius and has started testing it in Japan with US tests to follow soon after. Toyota’s vice president in charge of powertrain development, Masatami Takimoto, revealed back in May that commercial...

GM has surpassed Toyota in global sales for the second quarter of the year but still remains in the number two spot for the first six months. GM managed to regain the top spot despite falling demand for its products in its largest market, the US, and its global sales were up overall by 10,000 units...

Toyota has moved up to sixth place on this year’s Fortune 500 list of the world's 500 largest companies by revenue, up from eighth spot the year before. General Motors still managed to hold its title of the world’s largest carmaker in terms of revenue, registering ahead of Toyota in...

Toyota’s Prius hybrid has come under fire recently for not being as eco-friendly as its maker would have you believe but now, one of its key developers, Toyota’s US manager of its Advanced Technologies Group Bill Reinert, has come out defending the car. Last year, a study conducted by...

There's no doubt that Toyota’s Prius is the top selling hybrid car in the world. It's already sold more than half a million units, while competitors have struggled and sometimes failed with their own hybrid models. New evidence suggests the reason for the high sales aren't only due to the...

Toyota is reportedly developing a production version of the FSC, which was first displayed back at 2005’s Tokyo Motor Show. Touted as a ‘Flexible Saloon Concept’, the showcar's design was sedan mixed with MPV and is essentially what we’d describe today as a crossover. The...

Toyota is planning to launch a second dedicated hybrid brand in 2009 that will be sold alongside the current Prius and is expected to sell up to 100,000 cars per year. The information comes from Japanese newspaper The Nikkei, which also confirmed that Toyota is hoping that by 2010 its hybrid sales...

Last month we reported that Scion’s management was considering adding new models to meet demand from rising numbers of budget-minded consumers. Scion corporate manager Steve Haag revealed that a new model was possible and now Popular Mechanics is reporting that a Scion-branded pickup truck is...

The 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid has officially been revealed at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show. Click here for all the details and images. Despite being at the forefront of hybrid technology, even Toyota is having trouble bringing next-generation models to market using lithium-ion battery technology. It...

Toyota has announced that it has developed a new variable valve lift mechanism named ‘Valvematic’, which combines the previous VVT-i technology with a new mechanism that continuously controls the intake valve lift volume. While conventional engines control air intake using a throttle...