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Toyota To Stop Building Cars In Australia

Toyota said Monday it will stop making cars in Australia by the end of 2017, spelling a final blow to auto manufacturing in the country, where car companies say high production costs and tough competition have crippled business conditions. Toyota's announcement, which will result in the loss of around 2,500 jobs, was widely anticipated, coming just two months after General Motors Co. said it would end production in Australia by 2017. Ford Motor Co. announced in May that it would cease Australian production in 2016. All told, some 6,600 manufacturing jobs will be lost between the three companies. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. stopped manufacturing in Australia in 2008. Toyota Motor Corp. said its decision was based on a combination of factors including the high Australian dollar, the high cost of manufacturing and competition. "We did everything that we could to transform our business," Toyota Australia CEO Max Yasuda said in a statement. "But the reality is that there are too many factors beyond our control that make it unviable to build cars in Australia." Toyota President Akio Toyoda delivered the news to workers at the company's Altona plant near Melbourne, where he paid tribute to 50 years of Toyota cars being built in Australia. "To now have to deliver this news to the very people we have worked so hard with, to the many people who have supported our production for so many years, is most regretful for Toyota and, for me personally, simply heartbreaking," he said. Toyota, which has been manufacturing cars in Australia since 1963, currently makes the Camry, Camry Hybrid and Aurion in the country. It will become a sales company. Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said Toyota had not asked the government for any financial assistance in the lead-up to its decision. The government had subsidized auto manufacturing, hoping to keep the industry alive as it supports tens of thousands of jobs in other areas including auto parts. Holden, which is the Australian arm of GM, received 1.8 billion Australian dollars ($1.6 billion) in federal government assistance in the past 11 years. Auto makers in Australia produced about 178,000 cars in 2012, according to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers. Related Gallery AOL Autos Test Drive: 2014 Toyota Highlander Plants/Manufacturing Toyota

Toyota sold a million hybrids in last nine months, 6M since 1997

Toyota's first hybrid model – the Prius – went on sale in 1997 in Japan. It took 14 years for the company to see a cumulative total of three million hybrids (a mark reached in March 2011). Today, Toyota announced that its global sales figures of all of its gas-electric models (and there are a lot of them now, including ones we've barely heard of here in the US, like the Crown Majesta or the Harrier Hybrid) have reached six million. Toyota calculates that all those hybrids have saved 41 million tons of CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere. Toyota's ever-increasing hybrid sales pace means the company sold as many in the last three years as it did in the first fourteen. As you can see in our chart, the trendline shows that we'll hit the next-million mark in short order. In fact, Toyota says that it sold a million hybrids in the last nine months, the shortest time it has ever taken the automaker to sell that many hybrids. Part of the reason is that there are 24 hybrid Toyota and Lexus models available around the world, and Toyota says another 15 will be coming in the next two years. Anyone want to guess when Toyota will hit seven million? August? Worldwide Sales of Toyota Hybrids Top 6 Million Units Toyota City, Japan, January 15, 2014-Toyota Motor Corporation announces that cumulative global sales of its hybrid vehicles topped the 6 million unit mark as of December 31, 2013, reaching 6.072 million units1. The latest million-unit milestone was achieved in the fastest time yet for Toyota, taking just nine months. Helping mitigate the environmental effects of vehicles is a priority at Toyota. Based on its belief that environment-friendly vehicles can only truly have a positive impact if they are widely used, Toyota has endeavored to encourage the mass-market adoption of hybrid vehicles. As of this month, Toyota sells 24 hybrid passenger car models and one plug-in hybrid model in approximately 80 countries and regions around the world. Furthermore, within the next two years, Toyota will launch a total of 15 new hybrid vehicles worldwide, including the new "Harrier Hybrid" in Japan on January 15 and the new "Highlander Hybrid" in the United States in the near future. Toyota will continue augmenting its product lineup even further and increasing the number of countries and regions where it sells hybrid vehicles.

2017 Toyota 86: The car so nice it's been rebadged twice

When the dust settles and the Scion brand is no more, the car we currently know as the Scion FR-S will be rebadged. Again. If you remember the excitement that surrounded the Toyobaru/Subota rear-drive sports coupes' introduction, you'll recall that Scion's Subaru BRZ twin landed in here as the FR-S. That car, along with the new iA and iM, will get a stay of execution next year when the brand bids adieu. We know it will wear a Toyota badge in dealers from then on, and there's a good chance it will get the 86 badge European models wear. Toyota's version of the car goes by several different names depending on the market. It's only a Scion in North America, while it's sold as the Toyota 86 (in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South America, and South Africa), Toyota GT86 (in Europe and New Zealand again), and Toyota FT86 (in Nicaragua and Jamaica). The 86 part of the name is a nod to the rear-drive AE86 Corollas of the 1980s. That's a history lesson Toyota likely won't have to teach its core demographic. Then again, this car's core demographic probably already bought one. There's also a possibility that this car will get yet another name combination: Toyota FR-S. For the sake of simplicity, let's hope not. View 7 Photos So yes, the rebadged 86 will be re-rebadged back to a Toyota. Functionally this means almost nothing. Buyers who were ordering badge-swap kits from overseas will save some money. Some enthusiast forums might need to change their names. And people visiting from Japan or Europe will feel a little more at home when they see a rear-drive Toyota sports car on the street. Meanwhile, FR-S – a name that may or may not have stood for "front-engine, rear-drive, sport" – will be quickly forgotten. Related Video: Scion Toyota confirmed toyota 86