August 25, 2010

Toyota Plans 5 Million Cumulative Hybrid Sales by 2015
Toyota Motor Corp. said today it wants to reach cumulative sales of 5 million hybrid vehicles in the early part of this decade. Automotive News reports that Toyota, the pioneer in gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, said earlier this month it had sold more than 2.68 million hybrid vehicles globally since it launched the first model in 1997. The best-selling Prius and other models have received a boost in Japan especially in the last year thanks to government subsidies that favor hybrids over other fuel-efficient cars. Toyota has a goal of selling at least 1 million hybrid vehicles a year in the early part of this decade, and plans to introduce a hybrid option across its whole lineup as early as possible in the 2020s. Under a five-year environmental action plan to run through 2015 and released on Wednesday, the world's biggest automaker also said it would improve its vehicles' average fuel efficiency in all regions by 25 percent compared with 2005 levels. According to Finchannel.com, the plan is based on Toyota's environmental principles of contributing to the growth of a sustainable society and earth through manufacturing that is in harmony with the environment, making cars, and offering quality products and services. Click here to read more about Toyota's plan at Finchannel.com. For more on Toyota's plans for Prius sales, click here.

Nissan Shifts from 'Shift' to 'Innovation'
A commercial featuring a polar bear wandering far afield of its natural habitat, to promote the coming Nissan Leaf, is part of a new brand image campaign for Nissan, carrying the theme "Innovation for all." Eight years after urging consumers to "Shift" their buying behavior when it comes to cars, trucks, and minivans, Nissan North America is changing brand themes. In a campaign that is scheduled to get under way on Saturday, Nissan North America, part of the Nissan Motor Company of Japan, will proclaim its mission is to provide "Innovation for all." Click here to view one of the commercials. According to the New York Times, the change will also bring some more humor to Nissan advertising than had been evident recently; the addition of a sound at the end of each commercial, meant to symbolize the Nissan brand; and a new voice-over announcer for the commercials, the actor Robert Downey Jr. Nissan is "rallying around innovation," said Jon Brancheau, vice president for Nissan marketing at Nissan North America in Franklin, Tenn., as embodied by the Leaf, the mass-market electric car that the company is to bring out at the end of the year. Click here to read more on Nissan's new marketing campaign.

Top 10 Fast and Frugal Machines
Performance enthusiasts have been out of favor with the automotive industry for some time, as decadent sports cars have taken a back seat to ecological concerns, rising gas prices, and higher fuel economy mandates. Fortunately, advances in lightweight materials, computer engine management, and changing consumer expectations have enabled auto manufacturers to rethink high-performance cars in a more holistic way that includes fuel economy. When companies like Ferrari and Lamborghini are giving attention to hybrid technology and reduced CO2 emissions, to quote Bob Dylan, the times they are a-changin'. With that in mind, Autobytel has put together a list of vehicles that offer impressive performance and balance that with strengthened fuel economy. To make the list, each vehicle had to exhibit a power-to-weight ratio greater than 0.1 horsepower per pound (or no more than 10 pounds per horsepower). This golden ratio is a good general reflection of a car's acceleration, speed, and handling capabilities. From this group of high-performance cars and supercars, Autobytel chose the ten that exhibited the best combined mile-per-gallon fuel economy. The list gives some great examples of how you can scratch your high-performance itch while still achieving reasonable, and sometimes impressive, fuel mileage. Who says you can't have your cake and eat it too? Click here to find out how.

Bugatti, Shelby Compete to be Speed Kings of the Road
Clocking 268 miles an hour, Bugatti reclaimed the title of world's fastest production car last month with its new Veyron 16.4 Super Sport. Is the elite Volkswagen division worried about losing the record to upstart Shelby SuperCars, which took the honor away once before? Not really. Executives say they've set their sights higher. Such is the state of competition among companies making cars that can rocket to speeds more than three times the legal speed limit. Appealing to only a few hundred megarich customers, supercarmakers have turned back to the oldest page in their marketing book: Who goes fastest? According to USA Today, the rivalry was on display recently in Carmel, Calif. While Bugatti courted potential patrons at its unveiling of the $2.1 million Super Sport at the stately Quail Lodge Golf Club, Shelby entertained customers at a plush hilltop estate in Monterey, a couple of miles away. Though he considers Bugatti's Veyron to be a great automobile, Shelby SuperCars founder Jerod Shelby thinks his own creation is more fun and capable. He's poised to unveil a model in about a week that will sell for $840,000 and incorporate more carbon fiber, including the complete chassis. Click here for details on competition heating up between rival supercars Bugatti and Shelby.

A Convertible that Won't Muss Your Hair
The Wall Street Journal's Dan Neil, reviewing the Mercedes-Benz E550 Cabriolet, tells readers to think of the biggest, most architectonic beehive hairdo in John Waters's movie "Hairspray." Now add another foot of teased and tormented coiffure. Think Marge Simpson. Now go higher. Even such a splendid pile of "do" as that will be safe behind the wheel of the 2011 Mercedes-Benz E550 Cabriolet with its standard-equipment "Aircap" wind-deflector system. Click here for a photo gallery of the car. Mercedes' E-class coupe is just plain beautiful, but the Aircap system is one of those inventions that should really move the tin off the lot. Comprising a deployable spoiler-like device that levitates out of the windshield header and a motorized mesh air dam with headrest extensions that rise behind the rear seats, the Aircap system deflects the wind stream over the cabin at speed, creating a remarkably stable pocket of climate-controlled air behind the windshield. Through an extraordinary exertion of servo motors, mechanical linkages, canvas and mesh, the Mercedes E550 Cab all but nullifies the effects of cold weather on the cabin. The result is a truly inspiring, and unique, gestalt of moving through the environment in a bubble of climate isolation. For more from Neil on the greatness of the E550 Cabriolet's Aircap system, click here.

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