Toyota
FIA Formula E Championship for EVs looking likely for 2013
The FIA, governing body of internal-combustion-engined motorsport, appears to have finally recognized the bleeding obvious (that electric vehicles will become mainstream) and is planning a high profile electric racing championship series beginning in 2013. The FIA Formula E Championship series has not been publicly framed as yet so it is not known if the series will be run at the same venues as the Formula One series but it can be expected to be held at a range of international venues and will logically serve as the first official championship for electric vehicles. Whether the series will have world championship status ... Read More
The annual SEMA show is a place where the mechanically remarkable is average, the unexpected isn't and where you'll find look-at-me engineering solutions well beyond the preposterous. Hence Toyota's decision to focus its SEMA display around tuning and pimping its iQ luxury city car was always going to create interest. Three iQs have been created for the show's Tuner Challenge, with a fourth custom special displaying a radical chop-top that can be controlled by iPad and serves as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot and power charging station. Read More
Toyota and Peugeot announce plans for hybrid race cars
Toyota is the world's largest car maker and it is going sports car racing. Next year it intends to enter the hotly-contested LMP1 class with a car powered by a petrol hybrid power-train. Toyota's intention to promote its hybrid engine prowess appears certain to invigorate Le Mans racing as Peugeot already has a hybrid diesel under testing for next year and Porsche is rumored to have a hybrid race car ready by 2013. Read More
KU:RIN sets speed record for compressed air cars
Although battery-powered cars may no longer be considered quirky and weird, automobiles propelled by compressed air are still perhaps thoughts of as a little ... fringy. The MDI Air Car looked promising, although development of the vehicle seems to have been at least temporarily suspended. Toyota Industries Corporation, however, recently brought some attention to the technology. On September 9th, its one-off KU:RIN set a new speed record for compressed air cars, at 129.2 km/h (80.3 mph). Read More
Toyota is gearing up for a worldwide onslaught of hybrid vehicles in 2012 - part of a strategy to put out no less than ten new hybrids by 2015. The company has already begun launching hybrid versions of the Yaris light platform, the Auris/Corolla hatch and the medium Camry sedan in larger markets across the world - Japan, Europe and the US. But the most prominent (and branding wise the most important) is the expanded Prius family - Prius, Prius+ and Prius Plug-in Hybrid. Read More
Toyota is continuing to make its mark at the Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit. Just over a week after its Toyota Motorsport GmbH division claimed the lap record for an electric vehicle at the circuit in the TMG EV PV001, its Lexus luxury vehicle division is claiming the even more illustrious lap record for a production car. The record run came in a Lexus LFA Nürburgring Edition driven by Japanese LFA race and test driver Akira Iida, who clocked a time of 7 minutes 14.64 seconds on the 22 km (13.7 mile) circuit to eclipse the previous record time of 7 minutes 18.1 seconds set in a Porsche 911 GT2 RS in April 2010. Read More
Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) has knocked more than a minute off the lap record for an electric vehicle at the Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit. With a time of 7 minutes, 47.794 seconds, the TMG EV P001 beat the previous record of 9 minutes 1.338 seconds set by the Peugeot EX1 in April. TMG achieved its aim of becoming the first EV to break the eight-minute barrier on August 29 in fine weather with the track temperatures remaining relatively low. Read More
Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) will attempt to set a new lap record for an electric vehicle at the legendary Nürburgring later this month. The attempt will be made in the TMG 100 percent electric car that is based on a two-seater sportscar chassis fitted with a high-performance electric powertrain developed by TMG. With a top speed of 260 km/h (161.5 mph) and the ability to go from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.9 seconds, the vehicle will be looking to better the current EV lap record of 9 minutes 1.1338 seconds set earlier this year by the Peugeot EX1. Read More
As a child sitting in the back of the family car, did you ever use your finger to doodle in the condensation on the inside of the windows? Well, a group of engineers and designers from Toyota Motor Europe’s Kansei1 Design Division and the consultancy arm of the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID) have taken car-window-doodling into the 21st Century. They’ve created a prototype system that could turn the side windows of Toyotas into touchscreen augmented reality devices, allowing passengers to interface with the passing scenery. Read More
Backseat Driver is the first "toy" by ToyToyota, a new brand from the Japanese automotive company. It's in the form of a simple GPS-based app for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, and allows kids to take a virtual drive linked by GPS to the current driving route in the real world. Read More
