82 Toyota Land Cruiser Turbo Diesel 5 Speed 75mph Fj43 Wagon Restored Near Mint on 2040-cars

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CARB uses tricked-out RAV4 EV to measure air pollution in California

The old-school Toyota RAV4 EV you see above is the California Air Resources Board's version of a non-participant observer. The all-electric vehicle cruises around the state measuring airborne pollution. Since it's powered by batteries, there are no tailpipe emissions created as CARB tries to get a handle on how dirty the roadway air is. The problem, CARB says, is that it is difficult to measure air pollution levels, "during calm conditions at night and in the early morning." There are over 250 stationary air monitoring sites in California today, but the Board wanted a way to expand where and when it can test for things like ultrafine particles, carbon dioxide and nox. The original plan for the Mobile Monitoring Platform – as the RAV4 EV is officially called – was to "Investigate Spatial, Diurnal and Seasonal Pollution Gradients" on California's highways and ports. The RAV4 EV was originally expected to cost $280,000 (see pages 11-12 in this PDF from 2009), but a new report in the Modesto Bee says it had a total of $300,000 just in monitoring equipment. Michael Benjamin, CARB's chief of air monitoring, told the Bee that the MMP, "paints a thorough picture about what air quality is in any given community." More importantly, the stationary and mobile testing equipment can tell CARB when and where the air is getting cleaner. Which is the whole point, after all.

Submit your questions for Autoblog Podcast #329 LIVE!

We're set to record Autoblog Podcast #329 tonight, and you can drop us your questions and comments via our Q&A module below. Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes if you haven't already done so, and if you want to take it all in live, tune in to our UStream (audio only) channel at 10:00 PM Eastern tonight.
Discussion Topics for Autoblog Podcast Episode #329
Subcompact sales slump, yet again

Toyota launches Pixis Space; first kei cars are Daihatsus in drag

Toyota has announced that it will unveil its first-ever kei car to be sold under its recently launched Pixis sub-brand. The vehicle, called the Pixis Space, will make its official debut in late September. Based on the Daihatsu Move Conte, the Pixis Space will be sold at Toyota dealerships through what the automakers calls "Pixis stations." Yes, seriously.
After Toyota's version of the Daihatsu Move Conte makes its debut, the Japanese automaker will launch a Pixis-badged Daihatsu Hijet truck and microvan in December. By the end of 2012, Toyota says it will launch a Pixis version of the upcoming Daihatsu e:S - a vehicle that returns 70.6 miles per gallon (U.S.) as measured under Japan's JC08 test cycle.
In case you weren't aware, Daihatsu - Japan's oldest manufacturer of automobiles - operates under the control of Toyota. In other words, these Pixis machines are simply badge engineering at the kei level.