Toyota News
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If you're going to develop a self-driving test vehicle, why not make it one that passengers would enjoy riding in? Perhaps that's the logic behind Toyota's choice of its new Lexus LS large luxury sedan as the basis for the P4, its latest automated-driving test vehicle—unveiled yesterday by the Toyota Research Institute, or TRI. The self-driving test car, recognizably a Lexus sedan with additional hardware and sensors, will be introduced on Monday at the huge Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and also appear at the Detroit auto show the following week. CES, as it's known, has...
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2019 Toyota Prius AWD-e: First drive of 50-mpg all-weather hybrid
Between the unexpectedly wild styling, the very wide model range, the Prius Prime plug-in, and now the all-wheel-drive 2019 Prius AWD-e, it seems that Toyota has opted for a mix-and-match philosophy for the current fourth generation of America’s favorite fuel-sipper. The big news for...
Dan Carney -
Toyota Prius AWD-e: Going light on the rear motor helps it hit 50 mpg
The all-wheel drive version of the Toyota Prius introduced last week at the LA Auto Show earns an astoundingly good EPA fuel economy rating of 50 mpg combined—nearly as good as the 52 mpg earned by much of the Prius lineup (LE, XLE and Limited). But the system isn’t nearly as capable as...
Bengt Halvorson -
Lithium-ion vs. nickel-metal hydride: Toyota still likes both for its hybrids
Toyota continues to stay the course with nickel-metal hydride battery cells for many of its hybrid vehicles, even though most other hybrid vehicles from other brands have moved on to using lithium-ion cells exclusively. According to Prius chief engineer Shoichi Kaneko, in an interview this past...
Bengt Halvorson -
2020 Toyota Corolla Hybrid aims for 50 mpg—Prius tech meets frugal mainstream
With the introduction of a 50-mile-per-gallon Corolla Hybrid at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Toyota is keeping true to a mission it undertook a long time ago: democratizing hybrid technology, and making it mainstream. The carmaker has long aimed to deploy its hybrid system aggressively into pretty...
Bengt Halvorson -
Toyota Prius AWD-e earns 50 mpg with all-weather treads
If you want one of the highest-mileage non-plug-in vehicles on the market—like the Toyota Prius, Hyundai Ioniq, Kia Niro, or Honda Insight, there’s been one quite significant deal-breaker for many Snow Belt families: All-wheel drive simply isn’t a possibility. That’s due to...
Bengt Halvorson -
Yesterday, when we brought you our 2019 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid first drive review, we missed one very important point. At 39 mpg, the RAV4 Hybrid is now the highest-mileage sport-utility vehicle (as the EPA lists them) without a charge port. All the more impressive is that it’s not a low, teardrop-shaped vehicle with utility compromised in the name of aerodynamics but a tall wagon good for back-seat passengers and offering 8.6 inches of ground clearance. And it’s quicker than the non-hybrid version. Before the RAV4 Hybrid arrives, early next year, the Nissan Rogue Hybrid holds the...
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2019 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid first drive review: All the bits and pieces in place
The 2019 RAV4 Hybrid is Toyota’s way of flexing its corporate might. It’s as if the automaker called on each of its departments to create the new hybrid crossover SUV. The folks from design coughed up some 4Runner and Tacoma cues to give it a butch look. The Lexus team chiseled the...
Andrew Ganz -
Toyota Corolla hybrid will join Prius next year
The redesigned 2020 Toyota Corolla sedan will soon spawn a hybrid variant, the first gasoline-electric version of the automaker's popular compact car. Toyota made the announcement Thursday as it unveiled the Corolla sedan at simultaneous events in California and China, underscoring the model's...
Andrew Ganz -
Toyota teases all-wheel-drive Prius for LA auto show debut
Toyota has teased what is probably an all-wheel-drive Prius, slated for introduction at the Los Angeles auto show late this month. In studying the picture the company teased, with a Prius churning through the snow, it’s hard to come to another conclusion. The automaker says in a...
Bengt Halvorson -
Report: Volvo's parent company in talks with Toyota over hybrid systems
Toyota revealed on Thursday that it is in talks with Chinese automaker Geely, which owns Volvo, about cooperation on hybrid vehicle technology, Reuters reported. As the company that has sold by far the most hybrids worldwide, the discussions could involve selling Toyota hybrid technology in Geely...
Eric C. Evarts -
Toyota enters $82 million partnership to roll out hydrogen trucks in Los Angeles port
After showing its second-generation fuel-cell semi-truck at the Port of Los Angeles in July, Toyota announced last week it will build 10 more fuel-cell trucks for the project. In addition to the trucks, the project will add two new heavy-duty hydrogen filling stations, two new hydrogen forklifts at...
Eric C. Evarts -
Toyota is launching one of its largest recalls on one of its most popular models—the Prius hybrid. Covering all Toyota Prius and Prius Plug-in models built between June 2015 and May 2018, the recall involves a wiring harness for the car's hybrid power control unit, which can chafe and start a fire, the company told Reuters. The problem surfaced in Japan, where one Prius began smoking, and led to the recall of more than 1 million cars worldwide, 192,000 of which are in the U.S. Affected models were sold in the U.S. as model years 2016-2018. Owners will begin receiving mailed notices this...
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2019 Toyota Prius C preview: $900 price increase, fewer options
The most affordable hybrid on the market just got a little less so. The 2019 Toyota Prius C will cost $900 more, with a sticker of $22,450, including destination, based on a recent official price list released by Toyota and shared by our partners at CarsDirect. Toyota has replaced its traditional...
Eric C. Evarts -
Follow-up: In the end, I bought a Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid
In an article last fall, I reached out to the GCR readers for a suggestion for what plug-in vehicle I should buy to complement my 84-mile range 2015 Nissan LEAF. The new vehicle, my wife’s car, had to handle a 16-mile daily commute, occasional 300-mile trips to Vermont (a place of few DC fast...
John Briggs -
2018 Toyota Prius Prime, Tesla Model 3 take awards for lowest environmental and social impact
Rating cars isn't just about acceleration times—or at least it shouldn't be. Unlike other car rating organizations, the Automotive Science Group rates cars according to their life-cycle CO2 emissions, based on a combination of their fuel economy and weight, as a proxy for the materials...
Eric C. Evarts -
Toyota may let mechanics repair faulty recall inverters on older Prius
Toyota may supply independent mechanics with parts and instructions for repairing, but not replacing, potentially faulty inverters on certain 2014 Prius models, Green Car Reports has learned. According to Automotive Career Development Center founder Craig Van Batenberg, Toyota for the first time...
Aaron Cole -
2019 Toyota Avalon Hybrid first drive review: understated efficiency
In our testing the Avalon Hybrid seemed in line with what full-size buyers would expect from their sedans. It’s a smooth ride with effortless efficiency.
Aaron Cole -
Car collectors also gravitate towards car that represented turning points in automotive technology or design, and the Prius does that in spades.
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Toyota announces electric C-HR for China in Beijing
Plug-in models represented 40 percent of Toyota's sales in China last year, and buyers are always looking for a wider range of models to buy.
Eric C. Evarts -
2018 Toyota Camry XLE Hybrid road-trip review: a case for high-mpg sedans
Though sedans might lack the high seating position of crossovers, the Camry remains proof that they’re more stable, quieter, and guzzle far less gas. They’re also cheaper.
Andrew Ganz -
2019 Toyota Prius will be restyled to look more like Prime: report
Global sales of compact hatchbacks are hardly surging, and fuel economy for all types of vehicles is steadily improving. Even given those factors, though, the fourth-generation Toyota Prius hybrid has had an especially rough road since its launch as a 2016 model. At just 108,661 deliveries across...
John Voelcker -
2019 Toyota Corolla Hatchback returns at NY Auto Show
The Toyota Corolla is the world's highest-selling nameplate, having surpassed the Ford Model T and Volkswagen Beetle years ago. It exists in many different models and varieties all over the world, but the U.S. hasn't always been offered the hatchback version. In fact, the Corolla lineup only...
John Voelcker -
Redesigned 2019 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid debuts at New York auto show
With buyers showing no signs of letup in their enthusiasm for crossovers of all sizes and shapes, the redesigned 2019 Toyota RAV4 couldn't be coming at a better time. The Toyota RAV4 small SUV became the company's single best-selling model in the U.S. last year, surging past its long-time champion...
John Voelcker