New Toyota research center with 10k of roads to be built
06-21-09, 10:51 PM
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New Toyota research center with 10k of roads to be built
Seems the new president will ensure some sporty cars comes from Toyota. Also glad to see them see the long view and not cancel projects out of haste.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=al2aOaw0JHfc
Toyota Making Green Cars May Mean Destroying Japan Rice Paddies
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By Makiko Kitamura and Masatsugu Horie
June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. is plotting its future amid 1,631 acres (660 hectares) of rice paddies that date to the 17th century and cedar forests. Here, in central Japan’s Shimoyama village, a 30-minute drive from its Toyota City headquarters, the world’s biggest automaker plans a research center with at least 10 kilometers of road courses to fine-tune its vehicles.
President Akio Toyoda, who completed a 24-hour endurance race in May, says he wants to test new models.
“I plan to drive our cars,” Toyoda said in January. “I’d like to be a president who’s as close to the action as possible.”
Toyota’s push to get more hybrids and fuel-efficient cars on the road can’t come soon enough. Honda Motor Co. introduced its new Insight gasoline-electric model in February; it will sell a hybrid version of its Fit compact in the fiscal year starting in April 2010, earlier than originally planned.
“The market keeps changing,” says Akihiko Otsuka, chief engineer of Toyota’s newest Prius, which costs 2.05 million yen ($21,412) in Japan and gets 50 miles to the gallon. “Shortening the development period for hybrids especially is something that we’ve been told to do -- and it’s not just limited to hybrids.”
Fuel Economy
Test tracks closer to Toyota’s technical center in Toyota City would speed that goal, especially with suppliers nearby, says Andrew Phillips, an auto analyst at KBC Securities Japan.
Otsuka says the most challenging part of the four-and-a- half years Toyota worked on the latest Prius was the time spent on improving its 46-mpg fuel economy. Engineers first devoted every Monday to testing gasoline consumption. In the final year, they tested every day.
Toyota may do similar trials at the new facility as well as analyze safety and performance, Phillips says. Toyota won’t discuss the project. Officials in Aichi Prefecture, where Shimoyama is based, say they may break ground in April.
Toyota is flush with money for research. It held 5 trillion yen in cash and near-term securities as of March 31, according to Moody’s Investors Service. It shelled out 1.3 trillion yen for capital expenditures in the same year, trailing only Volkswagen AG’s 12.2 billion euros ($17.8 billion) and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s 19.4 billion euros in the year ended in December.
‘The Long View’
Toyota has spent 32 billion yen to buy land out of the project’s estimated cost of at least 100 billion yen, says Takayuki Tsunoda, an associate director at Aichi Prefecture’s Public Enterprise Bureau, which is handling the land development.
Toyota will keep spending to stay ahead of now bankrupt General Motors Corp. and fend off Honda, Phillips says.
“Toyota is taking the long view,” he says. “They’re thinking, How can we strengthen the competitiveness of the company?”
Toyota’s center for environmentally friendly cars will inflict damage on the environment, local activists say. They say construction will destroy the habitat of the gray-faced buzzard and oriental honey buzzard, both endangered in Aichi Prefecture. Toyota declines to comment.
In September, it scaled down the project by 32 percent. Even so, 691 acres will be deforested, rice paddies will be filled in and mountains bulldozed, Tsunoda says.
“Most people think of Toyota as an environmentally friendly company,” says Shigemi Oda, chairman of the Society to Consider the Large-Scale Development Project of the 21st Century. “Crushing mountains is environmentally destructive.”
For Akio Toyoda, Shimoyama may help broaden the appeal of Toyota’s brand as he navigates his challenges as president. “Over the next 100 years, I hope that cars will remain something that people will need,” Toyoda wrote in his racing blog. “We must make sure that that happens.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=al2aOaw0JHfc
Toyota Making Green Cars May Mean Destroying Japan Rice Paddies
Share | Email | Print | A A A
By Makiko Kitamura and Masatsugu Horie
June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. is plotting its future amid 1,631 acres (660 hectares) of rice paddies that date to the 17th century and cedar forests. Here, in central Japan’s Shimoyama village, a 30-minute drive from its Toyota City headquarters, the world’s biggest automaker plans a research center with at least 10 kilometers of road courses to fine-tune its vehicles.
President Akio Toyoda, who completed a 24-hour endurance race in May, says he wants to test new models.
“I plan to drive our cars,” Toyoda said in January. “I’d like to be a president who’s as close to the action as possible.”
Toyota’s push to get more hybrids and fuel-efficient cars on the road can’t come soon enough. Honda Motor Co. introduced its new Insight gasoline-electric model in February; it will sell a hybrid version of its Fit compact in the fiscal year starting in April 2010, earlier than originally planned.
“The market keeps changing,” says Akihiko Otsuka, chief engineer of Toyota’s newest Prius, which costs 2.05 million yen ($21,412) in Japan and gets 50 miles to the gallon. “Shortening the development period for hybrids especially is something that we’ve been told to do -- and it’s not just limited to hybrids.”
Fuel Economy
Test tracks closer to Toyota’s technical center in Toyota City would speed that goal, especially with suppliers nearby, says Andrew Phillips, an auto analyst at KBC Securities Japan.
Otsuka says the most challenging part of the four-and-a- half years Toyota worked on the latest Prius was the time spent on improving its 46-mpg fuel economy. Engineers first devoted every Monday to testing gasoline consumption. In the final year, they tested every day.
Toyota may do similar trials at the new facility as well as analyze safety and performance, Phillips says. Toyota won’t discuss the project. Officials in Aichi Prefecture, where Shimoyama is based, say they may break ground in April.
Toyota is flush with money for research. It held 5 trillion yen in cash and near-term securities as of March 31, according to Moody’s Investors Service. It shelled out 1.3 trillion yen for capital expenditures in the same year, trailing only Volkswagen AG’s 12.2 billion euros ($17.8 billion) and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s 19.4 billion euros in the year ended in December.
‘The Long View’
Toyota has spent 32 billion yen to buy land out of the project’s estimated cost of at least 100 billion yen, says Takayuki Tsunoda, an associate director at Aichi Prefecture’s Public Enterprise Bureau, which is handling the land development.
Toyota will keep spending to stay ahead of now bankrupt General Motors Corp. and fend off Honda, Phillips says.
“Toyota is taking the long view,” he says. “They’re thinking, How can we strengthen the competitiveness of the company?”
Toyota’s center for environmentally friendly cars will inflict damage on the environment, local activists say. They say construction will destroy the habitat of the gray-faced buzzard and oriental honey buzzard, both endangered in Aichi Prefecture. Toyota declines to comment.
In September, it scaled down the project by 32 percent. Even so, 691 acres will be deforested, rice paddies will be filled in and mountains bulldozed, Tsunoda says.
“Most people think of Toyota as an environmentally friendly company,” says Shigemi Oda, chairman of the Society to Consider the Large-Scale Development Project of the 21st Century. “Crushing mountains is environmentally destructive.”
For Akio Toyoda, Shimoyama may help broaden the appeal of Toyota’s brand as he navigates his challenges as president. “Over the next 100 years, I hope that cars will remain something that people will need,” Toyoda wrote in his racing blog. “We must make sure that that happens.”
06-21-09, 11:08 PM
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Interesting news. I am suprised Toyota does not have a test facility like this already. Looks like Toyota is going to moving more and more resources to the hybrids. I guess now with competition from Honda, if Toyota can get a new Hybrid out ever 4 years instead of 5 it would be a big win.
As for the Rice paddie issue: Toyota did plant 60,000 trees in India http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=21631
As for the Rice paddie issue: Toyota did plant 60,000 trees in India http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=21631
Last edited by pagemaster; 06-21-09 at 11:13 PM.
06-22-09, 12:17 AM
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I hope they get the sports car development going. We have been waiting since the supra for a new sports car. They give us one of the best cars to ever come out of Japan and then go into a performance hybernation that has lasted for more than a decade now
06-22-09, 07:24 AM
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"This sports culture, which we have neglected for so long, will again be maintained."
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/06/17/r...o-the-surface/
06-22-09, 09:14 AM
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Interesting news. I am suprised Toyota does not have a test facility like this already. Looks like Toyota is going to moving more and more resources to the hybrids. I guess now with competition from Honda, if Toyota can get a new Hybrid out ever 4 years instead of 5 it would be a big win.
As for the Rice paddie issue: Toyota did plant 60,000 trees in India http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=21631
As for the Rice paddie issue: Toyota did plant 60,000 trees in India http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=21631
https://www.autoloandaily.com/loan-n...eet-sales-goal
Honda originally expected the Insight to sell 90,000 units in the first year. In an interview with Bloomberg, John Mendel, Honda’s U.S. executive vice president, said that it looks like the Insight’s first year sales will be between 50,000 and 60,000 units. That would mean the Insight would miss its initial sales goal by about 33%.
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