Tag Archives: Toyota

NHTSA Investigation Into Toyota’s Stalling Engines

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A recall has not been issued yet, but U.S. safety regulators are intensifying an investigation into complaints of stalling engines on Toyota Corollas and Matrix hatchbacks. The preliminary probe begun last November when the NHTSA received complaints for 2006 models, but the problem has been expanded to include almost 1.2 million 2005-2007 Corolla and Matrix cars.

The problem is being blamed on an improper coating on the engine control unit (ECU) circuit boards that lead to cracks in the coating. The NHTSA has received 163 complaints of stalling engines as of last week. It is unclear whether the investigation will lead to a recall.

Toyota Posts Quarterly Profit

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Despite the bad economy and the multiple safety recalls, Toyota has posted a $2.2 billion quarterly profit, the biggest in two years. While automobile manufacturers have been struggling to make a profit, Toyota sales in North America, Japan, and other Asian countries ended up being higher than what was first forecast. Analysts say that consumers have been buying Toyota due to their sale incentives such as zero percent financing and added free options. The company has also received government incentives for green vehicles such as the Prius hybrid. Whatever it is, it has caused the company’s shares to increase two percent. With Toyota’s increased awareness of safety and recalls, the company can’t help but to come out stronger.

Another Subpoena For Toyota

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Toyota has been subpoenaed again by a grand jury, this time for documents related to steering relay rods. A probe was launched when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) received documents indicating that Toyota had potentially misled the government in 2005 over problems with steering linkages in its 1989-95 4Runner and the 1993-98 T100 vehicles. The subpoena, issued June 29, requests documents related to “defective, broken and/or fractured steering relay rods of Toyota vehicles,” Toyota said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In February, the same federal grand jury subpoenaed Toyota for information related to unintended acceleration in its vehicles as well as braking systems in the Prius hybrid. Toyota has also received subpoenas related to sudden acceleration from the SEC and the attorney general of Michigan. Toyota did not disclose which vehicles or model years were targeted by the latest subpoena.

Toyota’s Electric RAV 4

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The joint venture between Toyota and Tesla Motors, will have us seeing an electric version of Toyota’s RAV4 on the roads as early as 2012. Toyota has made a limited number of electric RAV4’s in the past, but have never commercialized the vehicle. The few RAV 4 EV’s that have been running for the past ten years in fleets and in private hands has been considered a terrific workhorse for those driving it. In this new venture, Toyota gets to re-energize their once innovative small crossover vehicle, and Tesla can show that their style of battery and energy management can support large-scale usage.

Tesla is best known for their first and only electric car, the Roadster, which was introduced in 2008, but hopes to expand their market with their Model S sedan which it plans to start selling in 2012. With the e-RAV4 they hope to expand the market even further for electric vehicles by giving ‘soccer moms’ and small business owners a vehicle they can use on a daily basis.

Hydrogen Cars – Still An Option?

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It seems that lately there has been much talk about the electric car. The automobile companies have been investing large amounts of money into electric cars with the hopes of becoming the leaders in the industry. The installation of more charging stations has not only made it more convenient to charge an electric car, but the installation of solar charging stations has made the drain on the power infrastructure less of a problem.

Still, the hydrogen car lurks in the background. Tucked away on the Torrance campus behind a security guard and a locked gate, a system designed to power Honda’s limited-production FCX Clarity sedan and other hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles uses solar panels to power a machine the size of a mini-refrigerator. This system converts water into hydrogen and oxygen gases and then pumpes the hydrogen directly into the car. No fossil fuels, no pollution, no additional strain on the power grid — and all done at home. It’s called a residential hydrogen refueler, and only one currently exists. According to statements from automakers like Honda, General Motors, Toyota, and Mercedes they hope to begin selling hydrogen-powered production cars to consumers as early as 2015.

Other hydrogen fuel-cell cars, only available by lease, exist. Made by GM, Toyota and Mercedes, most of the lessees are in “station clusters,” specific geographic areas that have hydrogen fueling stations. It’s the scarcity of these hydrogen stations that’s seen as one of the biggest barriers to mass adoption of fuel-cell cars.

The installation of these residential hydrogen refulers would solve this problem, but at what cost? Honda won’t say, but it’s a promising technology that advances the trend toward consumers detaching from a fossil-fuel economy and becoming more self-sufficient. It’s a future in which American homes are less reliant on a large-scale infrastructure — power grids, and water districts — and provide at least some of the solutions themselves via solar panels, gray-water systems, rainwater harvesting and home-based car-refueling technology.

Toyota Restarts Construction On Plant

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Toyota’s Blue Springs, Mississippi plant that was suppose to be completed before 2010 to build the Prius hybrid, will continue construction in order to build Corolla cars. The Corolla, had originally been built in California, but was temporarily shifted to Japan when Toyota closed down their California factory, due to a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors gone ‘sour’.

Toyota has committed more than $10 million to the state to support road construction and extend water and sewer systems, and made donations to support local education, according to the governor’s office. The plant should be finished by fall of next year, providing almost 2,000 jobs for local residences.

The plan signals that Toyota is again getting ready to tackle a growth strategy after managing to return to the black. The previous year had been the automakers worst loss in its history of building automobiles, due to numerous safety recalls.

Yoshimi Inaba, president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor North America, said the company couldn’t restart the plant until it was sure of a recovery. “With the return of stability to our existing operations in North America, it is time to fulfill Toyota’s promise in Mississippi,” said Inaba.

Tesla Motors Publicly Offered

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Tesla Motors Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif. based company, is scheduled to make a public offering to trade at the end of the month in hopes of raising as much as $178 million. The electric car maker, best known for its one and only all electric Roadster model, plans to sell 11.1 million shares at about $15 per share.

At the end of last month the company announced a $50 million investment from Toyota Motor Corp., and that they would be moving into the automobile plant recently closed by Toyota.

Tesla said it lost $25.5 million in the first quarter of 2010, compared to a quarterly loss of $16.0 million a year earlier. For all of 2009, it lost $55.7 million less than the loss in 2008. While electric automobiles are seen as an emerging technology, they are considered an early-stage industry that could take a decade to become more established, making the Tesla offering riskier.

Good News For The Auto Industry In California

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An automobile plant recently close by Toyota in California will be opening up their doors again for Tesla Motors Corp. Backed by a $50 million investment by Toyota, Tesla will start making electric cars within the year, at the same plant that was shared by a Toyota/GM venture. “By working together with a venture business such as Tesla, Toyota would like to learn from the challenging spirit, quick decision-making and flexibility that Tesla has. Decades ago, Toyota was also born as a venture business,” Toyoda said in a statement.

Restarting the factory is a major achievement for California’s economic development and a rare victory for a state that many business leaders say has become uncompetitive because of more regulations and higher labor costs than other states.

But not everyone is happy. The move is a disappointment for Downey officials who had been in talks with the automaker, hoping the company would set up shop in a closed facility that had once been used to manufacture the space shuttle.

Toyota’s investment in Tesla is particularly important because the electric vehicle company will be competing against better capitalized and larger traditional manufacturers. When an established manufacturer decides to partner with newcomers it will considerably increase the probability of success by giving them manufacturing know-how and access to a distribution network