Toyota pushes Prius incentives

Faced with intensifying competition in hybrid market, the company's recent leasing and financing offers have spurred sales gains.

To combat increased production and more competition from other hybrid vehicles, including some of its own, Toyota has introduced a large incentive program on its popular Prius.

The "ECO-nomic savings bonus" on the 2007 Prius involves discounts on specific option packages. Discounts range from $600 to $2,000.

Toyota offered some lease and financing incentives in February and March, resulting in Prius sales increases of 86.8 percent and 133.2 percent respectively.

As recently as last year, the Prius was selling at prices close to its manufacturer's suggested sticker price, and there were waiting lists for the cars. Demand so outstripped supply of the Prius that, a year or more ago, owners could sell their used Priuses and get back just as much as they originally paid for the car.

In the meantime, Toyota has increased production of the Prius to meet that demand. It also introduced a new hybrid version of its popular Camry sedan.

The Prius, Camry Hybrid and Toyota Highlander Hybrid SUV have been the best-selling hybrid vehicles from the beginning of 2006 to last month, according to Toyota.

Toyota shares edged upward Wednesday. Among the company's chief rivals are DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, Ford and Honda Motor.

Taken from CNN

Toyota Prius 2008

Every day, more and more people are discovering the great economy and value in the Toyota Prius. So we're making it easier than ever to get behind the wheel of your very own, with savings of up to $2000 [2]. The Prius boasts an EPA-estimated combined city/highway rating of 46 miles per gallon [3], an Advanced Technology Partial Zero Emission Vehicle (AT-PZEV) rating resulting in nearly 70% fewer smog-forming emissions than the average new vehicle. Great features like Push Button Start, available cruise control, keyless entry, power door locks and windows, and a liquid crystal multi-information display make the 2008 Toyota Prius the clear choice of drivers.

Toyota strives to build vehicles to match customer interest and thus they typically are built with popular options and option packages. Not all options/packages are available separately and some may not be available in all regions of the country. If you would prefer a vehicle with no or different options, contact your dealer to check for current availability or the possibility of placing a special order.

Some vehicles are shown with available equipment. Seatbelts should be worn at all times. For details on vehicle specifications, standard features and available equipment in your area, contact your Toyota dealer. A vehicle with particular equipment may not be available at the dealership. Ask your Toyota dealer to help locate a specifically equipped vehicle.


Taken from www.toyota.com

Redesigned Toyota Highlander debuts

New version larger and rounder than current model, available in V6 and Hybrid versions only.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Toyota unveiled the redesigned 2008 Toyota Highlander at the Chicago Auto Show Wednesday.

The new design has softer edges and corners making it look more like a larger version of Toyota's popular Rav4 small SUV.

The Highlander is a car-based crossover SUV based on the engineering of the midsized Toyota Camry sedan. It was originally introduced in 2001.

"The 2008 Highlander takes the car-based SUV concept to a new level," said Don Esmond, senior vice president for Toyota Motor Sales. "I say that with conviction, because it's a category we invented."

The new version is about four inches longer than the current Highlander and includes second row seats that can be changed from separate "captain's chairs" with armrests to a single bench-style seat.

When not in use, the center portion of the "bench" can be hidden in a compartment under the front center console.

The second row seats also recline and can move 4.7 inches forward or backward to create more legroom or cargo space.

A four-cylinder engine will no longer be offered in the new Highlander. Instead, buyers will get two drivetrain choices. The new Highlander will be available with a 3.5-liter 270-horsepower V6 with a 5-speed automatic transmission or a gasoline/electric hybrid system with a slightly smaller V6 coupled with an electric motor and a continuously variable automatic transmission.

Fuel economy figures are not yet available for the new Highlander. The current front-wheel-drive V6 Highlander gets an EPA-estimated 21 mpg in combined city/highway driving.

The current FWD Highlander Hybrid gets an EPA-estimated 29 mpg. The new version will have virtually the same fuel economy, according to Toyota.

The non-hybrid Highlander is expected to go on sale in July, 2007 followed by the hybrid version in September.

Driving green: My hybrid days

We take the Toyota Prius into the real world of New York City and find a few surprises.

By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN/Money staff writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - I really tried to avoid getting sucked in, but after four days, it was too much to resist. I had insisted I would drive like a New Yorker. But, finally, I let a car soften me. And what did that get me?

An extra five miles to the gallon.

(Picture Above: 2004 Toyota Prius in Queens, New York.)

I recently spent five days with a Toyota Prius, courtesy of Toyota. It surprised me. I had always read, and written, that the car's gas mileage was better in stop-and-go city driving than it was in steady highway cruising.

Perhaps it is, but not in New York City's version of city driving.

The Prius was clearly in its element in the low-speed, dart-and-weave grind of urban traffic. The egg-shaped sky-blue metallic car looked like it would be the vehicle of choice for the Easter Bunny, but its stubby nose was perfect for swinging around double-parked delivery vans. Parallel parking was an absolute breeze.

In terms of fuel mileage, though, the Prius's performance on my daily commute was surprising. It was good, but far from what I'd expected.

Tricks of the trade

One of the Prius's most important fuel-saving tools is a computer screen in the center of the dashboard.

When it's not displaying climate or stereo controls, it shows a continuous readout of the car's fuel-saving performance. I could choose either a simple bar graph or a dynamic display showing the moment-by-moment activity of the car's electric and gasoline powerplants, along with a readout of its fuel efficiency at every moment.

On a 20-mile weekend test drive, I was able to mix things up a bit -- a few stretches of highway with surface roads mixed in -- and the car averaged about 45 miles to the gallon. That was about what I'd expected. The EPA estimate for this car is 55 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving. Since no car really achieves the EPA estimated mileage, 45 miles per gallon seemed about right.

What was odd was that its city-vs.-highway gas mileage performance was what one would expect with any car. The EPA estimate gives a higher mileage number, 60, in city driving and a lower one, 51, for highway driving.

On the highway, I frequently saw fuel mileage numbers in the 60s flash by. During my daily commute to work, which involved no highway driving at all and took me straight through the congested heart of mid-town Manhattan, I was averaging 30 miles to the gallon. By the standards of most cars, 30 mpg in city driving would be considered outstanding.

In this case, I wondered what I was doing wrong.

How it works

The Prius uses both a 76 horsepower gasoline engine and a 67 horsepower electric motor. Some of the power for the gasoline engine is used to charge the battery for the electric motor. (Toyota rates total horsepower output for the hybrid system at 110.) When the car is stopped, even for a moment, the gasoline engine shuts off altogether. It doesn't come back on until the car is rolling along again.

At very low speeds -- like in a traffic jam -- the car can putter along with just the electric motor. At higher speeds, the electric motor acts sort of like a turbocharger, providing a boost for a gasoline engine that, ordinarily, would be out of its league powering a vehicle of any real size.

The key to winning the fuel mileage game, I quickly figured out, was trying to keep only one powerplant at a time in operation as often as possible. It's not easy. Still, in my last cross-town drive, going as gently as I could without causing a road rage incident, the best I managed was an improvement to 35 mpg.

A Toyota spokesperson later theorized that the Prius might have gotten better mileage in genuine gridlock. My commute consisted more of high-speed dashes followed by long, still waits. Not the best fuel economy scenario for any car, including the Prius.

Inside the egg

Fuel economy aside, the Prius is a far better car than its emphasis on fuel economy might suggest. Certainly, no one will confuse it with a performance car, but the light weight Prius never felt like a laggard. Its tall profile and soft suspension give the car some serious wobbles in hard cornering or on worked-over pavement, though. Inside, the car is surprisingly roomy with space for four adults and their stuff.

The Prius's array of deliberate oddities is aimed squarely at the heart of a techno-geek like me. There is no reason the Prius couldn't start with the turn of a key like any other car. Instead, the driver shoves a small plastic box into a rectangular hole in the dashboard and presses a start button designed to resemble a computer's power button.

But it sure makes starting the car in the morning much more entertaining. So does putting the car in gear by flipping a large, stubby toggle near the steering wheel rather than pulling a more normal gear selector.

One thing the Prius really didn't deliver during my test drives was a crowd. I was ready and able to answer questions from curious strangers wherever I stopped. None came. As far as I could tell, no one even gave the car a second look. I was barely even able to detect the occasional first glance.

Perhaps Toyota's public relations campaign has worked so well that curiosity has simply vanished. If you're on one of those months-long waiting lists to buy a Prius, don't worry. The car is still pretty cool and it probably still will be when you get yours.

But it's not going to get you any dates.

Camry goes hybrid

Toyota announces hybrid version of No. 1 U.S. car model and its first U.S.-built hybrid.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Toyota Motor Corp., the leader in sales of hybrid gas-electric vehicles, announced a hybrid version of its Camry sedan Tuesday, the best-selling U.S. car model.

Production of the Camry hybrid is slated to begin in late 2006 at the company's Georgetown, Ky., plant, making it the company's first U.S.-built hybrid.

"This is a proud day for the entire state of Kentucky," said Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher.

"Once the decision was reached to make a hybrid version of our best-selling vehicle -- the Camry -- the Georgetown plant was the natural choice for Toyota's first North American hybrid production," added Gary Convis, president of Kentucky plant. "Our team members' hard work and dedication over the last 20 years will ensure that the production of these cutting-edge vehicles in Kentucky will also be hugely successful."

The company already makes a hybrid sedan, the Prius, which had U.S. sales of 53,991 last year. By comparison, the Camry had U.S. sales of 965,091.

"The continued success of Prius has demonstrated consumers' growing demand for hybrid vehicles," said Jim Press, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor Sales. "Hybrid production in the U.S. will allow us to be even more responsive to the desires of our customers."

Other automakers have hybrid versions of gasoline-only vehicles already in production or coming to production soon. Honda Motor Co. has hybrid versions of its Civic, a compact car, and the Accord, its mid-size sedan and the nation's No. 2 selling car model after the Camry.

Toyota just recently came out with its own hybrid versions of gas-only vehicles when it brought hybrid technology to two mid-size sport/utility vehicles for the first time. The hybrid Lexus RX 400h, the SUV for its luxury brand, went on sale in April, while a version of the lower-priced Toyota Highlander is set to go on sale in June.

But the Prius and the two SUVs are made in Japan.

Wheels: Toyota Highlander Hybrid

Added power, efficiency and technological pizzazz give this SUV a needed dose of personality.

By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN/Money staff writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - In the end, I was won over by the plain, simple and earnest Toyota Highlander hybrid, even if it didn't seem like my type, at first.

The Highlander, even the regular non-hybrid kind, has just one major shortcoming: It's boring. On a global scale of excitement, the Toyota Highlander ranks up there with a nice glass of room-temperature tap water.

If you want to know what it's like to drive a Highlander, think of Velveeta, the processed cheese product from Kraft. Soft, bland and a little gooey, it's neither interesting nor objectionable.

Even so, the Highlander is very popular. Few SUVs are easier to lose in a parking lot. And it has some simple, practical benefits that make it easy to understand why that's so.

The addition of gas-electric hybrid technology to the Highlander actually spices things up a little. Besides the sheer novelty of it, the Highlander Hybrid has the same 3.3-liter V6 engine as the higher-end non-hybrid versions. So the two electric motors -- or one electric motor in front-wheel drive versions -- give the hybrid an extra boost of power in addition to saving gas.

Under hard acceleration, both the electric and gasoline powerplants spring to life and push hard. Total horsepower output comes to 268 in either two- or four-wheel drive versions. That's 38 more than you get in the regular gasoline-only Highlander. Also, the electric motors produce their full allotment of torque right from the start. That means a slightly gutsier take-off.

Not that the regular Highlander is underpowered. It's not fast, but it's certainly quick enough. You can merge without fear. But the hybrid's extra boost is noticeable and nice to have.

It does come at the cost of some wicked engine noise, though. The hybrid's continuously variable transmission, which shifts gear ratios continuously rather than stepping up gear-to-gear, keeps the gasoline engine in its hardest working -- and loudest -- power range full time until you let up on the gas. It's working those pistons hard and it sounds like it.

The hybrid's handling also felt a little better to me than the regular Highlander. Now, that could have been just because, after a few days, I was getting used to the way it felt. The Highlander does have "car-like" handling, but it's not like a very good car.

Or it could have been the extra 350 pounds of the hybrid system's motors and battery packs. The extra weight is under the Highlander's body, below the vehicle's center of gravity. That would add some extra firmness and stability, which would be just what the Highlander needs.

There is a plus to that boring, boxy shape, by the way. The Highlander makes efficient use of its space, offering as much room inside as seemingly larger vehicles.

It's easy to pack and unpack, easy to park and maneuver in traffic, and it offers a comfortable amount of space for five passengers. For all of those boring, practical reasons, the vehicle ended up growing on me after a few days.

On a 225 mile round trip from New York City to Hyde Park, New York -- home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Culinary Institute of America and, perhaps more importantly, the EveReady Diner -- we got about 28 miles per gallon. That's outstanding for a roomy V6 SUV.

According to government estimates, a four-wheel-drive Highlander Hybrid should get about 31 miles per gallon in city driving and 24 on the highway. (No, those numbers aren't backwards.) That compares to 18 and 24 miles per gallon for a four-wheel-drive non-hybrid version with the same engine. Real-world driving usually yields lower mileage than EPA estimates, so my result was surprising.

The route we took was fairly evenly divided between steady highway cruising and slower stretches through small town shopping districts. There were also more than a few pedal-to-the-metal starts as we pulled off the highway and back on again to go back and look at something we'd missed.

On the self-righteousness front, the Highlander Hybrid allowed us to creep through National Park lands without releasing any finch-gagging particulate matter. OK, it was the Vanderbilt Estate. Not exactly the Grand Tetons, but you get the idea.

With a starting price of about $33,600, the Highlander Hybrid costs about $6,000 more than a comparably equipped regular Highlander. (Comparably equipped, in this case, includes virtually useless third-row seats. You can't get the Hybrid without them. Their sole value is as a conveniently folding way to punish small children.)

That high price differential is a real shame and only some of that is due to the hybrid system itself. The rest is from extras that have no relation to the system. Unfortunately, it may keep a lot of people from experiencing the benefits of this technology.

If they're going to charge that kind of cash, they should put the word "hybrid" somewhere on the outside in letters higher than a quarter of an inch.

If I'm paying that much to help save the world, I want everybody to know it.

Toyota planning 10 more hybrids

By the end of this decade, Toyota plans for 25 percent of U.S. sales to be hybrid vehicles.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Toyota Motor Corp. plans to introduce 10 more gasoline-electric hybrid models globally by early next decade in a push to boost total sales of hybrids to 1 million, a top Toyota U.S. executive said.

The world's second-biggest automaker is also aiming for hybrid vehicles to account for at least 25 percent of its U.S. sales in the same time period, Jim Press, Toyota's U.S. president and chief operating officer, told Reuters on the sidelines of an auto conference in this northern Michigan resort.

Meeting a global goal of 1 million hybrid vehicles would mean that Toyota would have to sell about 600,000 vehicles in the U.S. alone, Press said, according to a report from Automotive News, an industry newspaper.

"To achieve that goal, we will have to look at offering hybrid power systems in virtually all of our vehicles, including trucks," Press told Automotive News.

Owners of future hybrid vehicles might be able to choose between high gas mileage or more performance by pressing a button on the instrument panel, said Press, according to the Automotive News report.

Currently, some hybrid cars, like the Toyota Prius, are engineered to offer maximum fuel efficiency while others, like the Lexus 400h SUV, also from Toyota, offer increased performance at the cost of the best possible fuel economy.

Gasoline/electric hybrid vehicles use electric motors in addition to gasoline engines to power the car. Some of the power from the gasoline engine and from braking is used to charge batteries for the electric motor.

Toyota is currently working on hybrid-powered pick-up trucks, Press told Automotive News.