Toyota Recall

WASHINGTON – Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it will replace accelerator pedals on 3.8 million recalled vehicles in the United States to address problems with the pedals becoming jammed in the floor mat.

As a temporary step, Toyota will have dealers shorten the length of the gas pedals beginning in January while the company develops replacement pedals for their vehicles, the Transportation Department and Toyota said. New pedals will be available beginning in April, and some vehicles will have brake override systems installed as a precaution.

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, announced the massive recall in late September and told owners to remove the driver’s side floor mats to prevent the gas pedal from potentially becoming jammed.

McCurdy said using a mobile phone without a hands-free device or scrolling through a cellular phone’s list of phone numbers may put drivers at risk.

But the industry strongly supports allowing hands-free devices to make calls. Some states ban the use of cell phones by drivers without using a hands-free device. “You have to minimize the eyes off the road time. That’s critical,” McCurdy said.

The alliance represents 11 automakers, including Detroit’s Three automakers, Toyota Motor Corp., Daimler AG and BMW AG.

Ford Motor Co. endorsed a ban earlier this month as part of an effort to defend its Sync system, which among other features reads a caller’s text messages to a driver and allows them to make phone calls or play songs through voice commands.

General Motors Co. spokesman Greg Martin said the Detroit automaker agreed with calls to ban texting behind the wheel.

“Text messaging is dangerous while driving. It should be banned,” he said.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood plans to hold a summit next week on distracted driving and address the issue of texting.

“If it were up to me, I would ban drivers from texting,” LaHood said in August. “But we’ve learned from our efforts to get people to wear seat belts and to persuade them not to drive drunk that laws aren’t always enough. Often, you need to combine education with enforcement to get results.”

He said the summit will include senior transportation officials, safety advocates, law enforcement representatives, members of Congress and academics.

“When we are done, I expect to have a list of concrete steps to announce,” LaHood said. “The bottom line is, we need to put an end to unsafe cell phone use, typing on BlackBerry (devices) and other activities that require drivers to take their eyes off the road and their focus away from driving.”

A Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., would withhold highway funding to states that didn’t adopt a ban. Ford has endorsed the bill, but the alliance hasn’t specifically endorsed the measure.

McCurdy said the alliance supports the intent behind the bill’s effort to ban texting. The alliance goes farther than the Schumer bill, in calling for an outright ban on using hand-held cell phones.

States would lose 25 percent of their funds if they didn’t comply under Schumer’s bill, and the provision is similar to one that enticed states to adopt a 0.08 percent blood alcohol level limit for drunken driving.

To date, 18 states and the District of Columbia have banned sending text messages. But the issue has gotten a lot of attention this summer in Washington amid a series of reports highlighting the issue. Congress could act on the question before the end of the year. Schumer’s bill has five co-sponsors in the Senate. Michigan doesn’t ban the practice.

A Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study released in July said drivers of heavy vehicles using a hand-held text messaging system had 23.2 times as high a risk of a crash than drivers who weren’t.

A House version sponsored by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., has seven supporters currently.

Some safety advocates want all texting or all cell phone use banned. The National Safety Council has called on banning all cell phone use while driving.

But automakers note that technology will always be involved in driving.

“Drivers must be able to perform multiple functions safely, whether it is turning on the windshield wipers, the radio or the climate control while driving,” the alliance said.

Automakers are introducing models all or partly powered by lithium-ion batteries holding twice the energy of nickel packs. While Toyota’s lithium version performed well and gave small fuel-economy gains because of lighter weight, nickel is favored for conventional, mass-market hybrids for its cost, said Kazuo Tojima, the carmaker’s senior staff engineer for batteries.

Lithium’s durability, stability and safety are assured, the Toyota City, Japan-based company’s tests showed, Tojima said.

The tests appear to be among the most thorough done by companies planning to introduce the batteries, said Menahem Anderman, president of consulting firm Advanced Automotive Batteries in Oregon House, Calif.

“We now know that a lithium-ion battery can work; that’s not really the question,” he said. “Cost is critical, and we still don’t know enough about long-term durability.”

Toyota has sold more than 2 million hybrid cars and light trucks worldwide since introducing the Prius in Japan in 1997, almost all using nickel. The automaker hasn’t announced plans to sell standard hybrids with lithium batteries in the U.S.

This year, Toyota will begin delivering test fleets in the U.S., Japan and Europe consisting of plug-in Priuses that can run 12 miles (19 kilometers) solely on lithium-ion battery power after charging at an electrical outlet. The car is being shown this week at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

The company also plans to sell a small electric car for urban commuters, powered solely by lithium packs, by 2012.

Nissan Motor Co. will begin offering battery-electric Leaf compact cars next year, which the Yokohama-based company says will travel 100 miles on a fully charged lithium pack. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is selling in Japan the i-MiEV, a $51,000 electric minicar that also travels as far as 100 miles using only lithium-ion batteries.

Toyota doesn’t expect battery-powered cars to succeed in the mass market until 2020 because batteries are too costly and capacity limits their range.

“Electric vehicles of today are less costly than in 1990s, but if you compare them with the other vehicles out there they are still too expensive,” Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada said at news conference at the Frankfurt show. “Unless there is a very big breakthrough in battery costs, I don’t think electric vehicles can take a large market share.”

He said Toyota was in the middle of “an overall replanning of our North American operation.”

Among the considerations, the Japanese automaker is trying to decide whether to keep open its 25-year-old New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. assembly plant open in Fremont, Calif. The plant, which employs 4,700 people, was a joint venture with the then-General Motors Corp., but the Detroit automaker recently withdrew from the joint venture during its stay in bankruptcy court.

“That put us in a very difficult position,” Inaba said. “We haven’t made up our mind yet. We are carefully evaluating all the options.”

He didn’t commit to a timetable for a decision on Nummi, but said a decision would be made “quite soon.” He said Toyota hadn’t received a concrete government incentive package from California yet.

The hourly workers at Nummi are represented by the United Auto Workers, and the contract expires next month. Inaba said the UAW contract “is one consideration, but not the single deciding factor.”

Inaba noted that California is Toyota’s single biggest market in the United States, and closing the factory would have a negative impact on its image there.

The company also is contemplating what to do with its Mississippi plant. Toyota has completed the structure, but not moved equipment into it or given a date it might open because of the sharp decline in auto sales. It was initially scheduled to open next year.

Asked whether Toyota could shelve its Mississippi plant permanently, Inaba said, “I hope not,” and added, “I’m not that pessimistic” about the plant’s future.

He refused to rule out layoffs or plant closures at its other North American plants.

Toyota has said it may build the Prius in Mississippi. Toyota just launched its third-generation Prius built in Japan. He said it isn’t clear if Toyota would wait until the fourth-generation Prius to start production in the United States.

Inaba said the company had made mistakes in making too many decisions in Japan, urging more “decentralization” of decision-making.

Because of Toyota’s success for the last eight years, there was an attitude among some executives that, “OK, now we have been so successful, we understand the market, so we can make a decision there rather than here,” Inaba said.

Last year, Toyota became the world’s largest automaker.

Inaba said the company is listening to the market, and customers “had been a little bit lost.”

When asked whether Toyota had become complacent, he said, “Complacent or arrogant — a lot of people use that — I don’t know,” he said, adding that the company had tried to guard against those qualities.

Inaba acknowledged that Toyota vehicles had often lacked “passion” and that the company’s vehicles must be “more exciting, more nimble.”

“Toyota is a good car but not exciting. Those are the comments we usually (or) always get,” Inaba said.

Inaba said he supported the decision of the U.S. government to rescue General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC with $65 billion in loans. “Stepping into Chrysler and GM was a necessary step for the government, for the country,” Inaba said.

But going forward, he said he hoped the U.S. government would have a “free-market level ground in mind in deciding what to do next.”

Despite the shuttering of about 3,000 Chrysler and GM dealerships, Toyota has no plans to expand its dealer network in the United States.

He also said GM and Chrysler were right to shrink their dealer networks.

Inaba also said that it was still on track to introduce a pilot fleet of 500 plug-in electric vehicles worldwide by the end of this year, including about 150 in the United States. Toyota hasn’t committed to selling plug-in vehicles commercially yet as some of its competitors have. Inaba said it wants to make sure there are no safety issues with larger lithium-ion batteries in the plug-in vehicles.

“All the learning that we can get from that, I think we will decide the next steps,” Inaba said.

Inaba also reversed a prior Toyota position, saying that Toyota hadn’t ruled out applying for the $25 billion Energy Department advanced technology vehicle retooling program. But he noted that Toyota wasn’t in immediate need of money.

“We are not short of cash, let me put it that way,” Inaba said.

Inaba first joined Toyota in 1968 and served in a number of roles. Since 2007, Inaba was president and CEO of Central Japan International Airport Co., also serving as a senior adviser to Toyota’s board.

He assumed his new oversight of Toyota’s North American operations last month.

The Fiat Bravo and Grande Punto will eventually be built in China, but the Linea will be the first vehicle launched in China as a result of the joint-venture. The Linea will be powered by two versions of Fiat’s turbocharged 1.4L engine, one producing 120 horsepower and the other making 150 horsepower.

Although Fiat sells a few thousand vehicles in China every year, the Italian automaker hasn’t built a car in China since its joint-venture with Naijing Automotive expired in 2007. Guangzhou is one of China’s more experienced automakers, selling more than 530,000 cars last year, according to Automotive News. Guangzhou is also the Chinese partner of Toyota and Honda.

A version of Toyota’s plug-in hybrid based on the conventional Prius hybrid will go on sale in Japan this month to fleet customers, and according to the same reports it will be priced at ¥4.59 million (approximately $47,800). It will run on lithium-ion batteries supplied by Panasonic EV Energy and will reportedly be able to travel up to 18.6 miles on electric power alone.

Toyota wasn’t willing to confirm any of the latest detail but the automaker has previously confirmed that trials of 500 Prius plug-in hybrids will start at the end of the year. The cars will be leased to government and commercial fleets, with 200 set to stay in Japan, a further 150 headed to Europe and the final 150 reserved for the U.S. market. The Prius plug-in hybrids are already averaging 65mpg in the combined cycle during initial testing – that’s a 30% improvement over the standard 2010 Prius, recently certified as the most efficient hybrid in America.

Aston Martin is building a model that’s even smaller than a Ford Fiesta!

Based on the Toyota iQ, the Cygnet is the result of a joint venture with the Japanese giant. Details are scarce at the moment, but the tiniest Aston Martin ever is expected to share the same three-cylinder petrol engine as the iQ, along with its innovative three- plus-one seating arrangement.

It will also boast a Euro NCAP five-star crash safety rating. And with a low-emission, highly economical engine, the Cygnet will help Aston to meet increasingly stringent environmental targets too.

As you can see, the firm has managed to distill all of the design cues from its supercar range into a package measuring only three metres long.

Inside, expect the same attention to detail as you’d get on the DBS, with a leather-clad cabin featuring the very best materials, along with an ECU (Emotion Control Unit) that plugs into the centre console, replacing a traditional key.

However, not just anyone will be able to buy a Cygnet. In order to snap up one of the must-have urban machines, you have to already own an Aston Martin, as the firm is only making them available to existing customers. The company has identified that around 30 per cent of owners have small cars such as the MINI or Smart ForTwo in their garages, using them for short journeys to and from city-based offices. Now Aston is giving them the chance to buy their very own ‘luxury commuter’.

Dr Ulrich Bez, Aston Martin chief executive, explained more about the Cygnet: “Now is the right time for Aston Martin to take this bold step to embark on this special project – made possible with the support of an organisation of Toyota’s stature and capability and the intelligent design and perfect city car package of the iQ.

Toyota is grappling with plunging sales — down 39 percent so far this year — and idle production capacity in the United States that contributed to its $4.3 billion loss last year. Under the new structure, Yoshimi Inaba, a former U.S. sales chief who was recently rehired by Toyota, will be based in the United States and hold two traditionally separate jobs. He will be president of Toyota Motor North America, the New York-based regional holding company, as well as chairman of Toyota Motor Sales in Torrance, Calif., according to a company statement.

Inaba will report to Atsushi Niimi, an executive vice president based in Japan who once headed Toyota’s U.S. manufacturing operations.

Niimi will be in charge of the North America Operations Group as well as chairman of Toyota’s North American manufacturing and engineering subsidiary based in Erlanger, Ky.

The company said the organizational changes are designed to allow each region to take more initiative. At the same time, the management appointments seem aimed at helping Toyota’s top managers keep close tabs on the U.S. market, traditionally its most lucrative.

At his first news conference as president, Toyoda said Thursday in Tokyo that the U.S. auto market could evolve to comprise more smaller and more fuel-efficient vehicles. He said Toyota needed to increase its responsiveness to customer demand in each market.

Some company executives believe the automaker was unprepared for the sudden changes in the U.S. market after focusing too much on developing and selling large vehicles, said Masaki Taketani, analyst at CSM Worldwide. “They have to change,” he said.

Under the new system, the Americas Operations Group has been split, with the Central and South American business shifted to another unit including Middle East and Africa operations.

Within North America, Toyota Motor Sales President Jim Lentz will report to Inaba, who will be the highest ranking officer in the U.S. and will be based in New York. Tetsuo Agata remains president and CEO of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America in Kentucky.

Steve St. Angelo is appointed executive vice president of the U.S. manufacturing subsidiary and a managing officer of the parent company in Japan. St. Angelo remains president of Toyota’s Georgetown, Ky., assembly plant.

Suzuki has seen tremendous success – particularly in emerging markets — in the 660cc and smaller car segments. In addition to climbing to number two in the Japanese market, Suzuki stakes claim to the best-selling car in India – the Alto.

The tie-up may seem at odds with VW’s plan to launch the Up city car in the next few years, but the Suzuki-sourced cars would actually slot below the Up. It remains unclear which global markets VW has in mind for the small cars, but China – where VW is currently battling with General Motors for the number one spot – seems like a distinct possibility.

The California factory — opened by GM in 1962 — became the first U.S. auto assembly plant jointly operated by two automakers when it reopened in 1984.

GM and Toyota are holding discussions about future production opportunities at the California plant. The factory also builds the Toyota Matrix.

“We’ve gained a lot from our partnership with Toyota,” Pontiac spokesman Jim Hopson said today. “We aren’t going to walk away from it.”

GM previously said Pontiac Solstice output will cease in July, followed by the end of production for the G6 sedan, coupe and convertible at a plant in Orion Township in September. For the 2010 model year, Pontiac plans to market just two models, the Vibe and the G6, which will be sold only to fleet customers.