Toyota News

In the next few years, American customers will be able to purchase an all-new Toyota Yaris, based on the next-generation Mazda 2 and built in Mexico. In the meantime, Toyota has refreshed the existing car with a new front facia and upgraded equipment levels. Toyota has injected the refreshed Yaris...

Automakers love to boast about Nürburgring lap times when selling performance cars. Once one of the most dangerous motor racing circuits in the world, it's now a measuring stick for the capabilities of road-going sports cars, performance sedans and supercars. ALSO READ: White House Responds To...

With a new Toyota Prius on the horizon, rumors abound as to what the next-generation of the world's best-selling hybrid will offer when it's unveiled late next year. Some changes are a given: Better fuel efficiency, an improved interior, a revised yet familiar shape. Others, such as all-wheel...

Cars sold in the U.S. have to meet certain safety regulations in order to ensure their legality on U.S. roads. Unfortunately for Toyota, one of those safety regulations for electric vehicles would prevent its upcoming fuel-cell sedan from driving after even a small fender-bender--so the company is...

Toyota might not be convinced by battery electric vehicles but that hasn't stopped the company testing its i-Road urban electric vehicle. Its latest round of testing takes place in Europe, where a fleet of 70 i-Road and Coms personal mobility vehicles are being deployed throughout the French city...

Toyota has said for many years that it plans to build and sell a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle, and now the company has trickled out some more information on that car. Specifically, it provided images of the final production version's exterior design--little changed from the concept it showed at the...

The Toyota Highlander Hybrid remains the sole seven-seat hybrid vehicle on the market, and it has been redesigned and updated for the 2014 model year. While smaller vehicles--the Prius far ahead of any other model--make up the bulk of U.S. hybrid sales, the 2014 Highlander Hybrid stands at the top...

Japanese automakers Toyota and Nissan have always done things a little differently. But when it comes to company strategies for meeting future transportation needs, each firm's approach couldn't be more different. Nissan is resolute on its decision to go electric. Toyota, on the other hand...

The Scion iQ has not been a success story for Toyota's youth-orientated brand. In 2013, just 4,406 iQs found homes in the U.S. That's half as many as were sold in 2012, hardly a stellar year itself. By contrast, Toyota's other small car had a bumper year in 2013. The Aygo minicar moved nearly...

Lithium-air batteries, with high energy density, low weight and useful stability, are a major candidate for future electric car batteries. However, commercialization may not happen for another fifteen years or more given current limitations, so improvements in the meantime must be found elsewhere...

Battery-electric, or fuel-cell? Japanese automakers are divided on the subject--Nissan and Mitsubishi brought electric cars to the market early, but Toyota and Honda have dragged their feet, concentrating instead on developing fuel-cell vehicles. The Japanese government is now on their side, as the...

One challenge to more widespread adoption of electric cars is public charging--or rather, the scattered multiple networks of irregularly spaced public charging stations. In Japan, the four major electric-car makers have now joined together to form a new company whose goal is to build a single...

Toyota has revealed it's developing a new design of semiconductor that could improve the fuel efficiency of its hybrid vehicles by up to ten percent. Developed with in-house technology partner Denso, it plans to test the semiconductor's real-world gains in road trials within the year. The pursuit...

Several news reports over the weekend noted that Tesla's contract to supply Toyota with electric powertrains for its RAV4 EV crossover would end next year. In the words of Tesla's latest quarterly report, cited by Bloomberg in a Saturday news story, “Toyota is expected to end the current RAV4...

Despite the recent advent of usable, talented electric vehicles, combustion engines are likely to persist for quite some time, often as a component in plug-in hybrid and range-extended electric vehicles. The onus then is on refining combustion power to work harmoniously with increasingly...

The all-electric Toyota RAV4 EV, even with its Tesla-designed powertrain, isn't exactly flying out of dealerships. While it's a low-volume compliance car sold to meet California regulations, Toyota still has to move 2,600 of them over a three-year period that began in September 2012. So Toyota is...

Toyota's Camry is a classic case of where improving something just a little can make a disporportionately large difference. As America's best-selling passenger car, one with an available hybrid model, any improvements are big news. ALSO SEE: Where Do U.S. Electric Cars Save Money The Quickest?...

Most internal combustion engines are incredibly inefficient at turning fuel burned into usable energy. The efficiency by which they do so is measured in terms of "thermal efficiency", and most gasoline combustion engines average around 20 percent thermal efficiency. Diesels are typically...

Several automakers have realized that being truly green involves much more than just building cars that don't use much fuel. The latest is Toyota, which is simultaneously powering its plant and cutting local emissions in Georgetown, Kentucky, by capturing waste gas from a local landfill site...

Toyota is to start real-world consumer trials of its unique i-Road urban electric vehicle in its native Japan. Like its European equivalent, Renault's Twizy, the i-Road aims to combine the comfort and safety of a car with the ease-of-use and convenience of a scooter or motorcycle. While the Twizy...