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Toyota has been very vocal about its lofty plans for the new Mirai. After severing ties with Tesla in 2014, Toyota has shifted its focus toward fuel cells and away from all-electric cars. On Wednesday, Toyota announced that the Mirai had achieved an EPA-estimated range of 312 miles. That’s the longest range of any zero-emission vehicle on the market today, including electric vehicles. “Toyota realized in the early 90’s that electrification was key to the future of the automobile,” said Toyota’s North America CEO Jim Lentz in a statement “Just as the Prius introduced hybrid-electric vehicles to millions of customers...

So I’m on vacation the other day, and I get a text message from my dad saying that he’s returning to the Lexus dealership service department for the second time in a day. This surprised me. My father would never willingly go to an automobile dealership twice in a single day. The man will sometimes go entire years without setting foot in a car dealer. He is, when it comes to cars, my polar opposite: he doesn’t care. He drives 6,000 miles a year and religiously maintains his vehicles at the dealership, documenting every service, every oil change, every fuel...

TOKYO (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda said Friday he believes an American executive arrested on suspicion of importing a controlled drug into Japan had no intention of breaking the law. Julie Hamp, Toyota's head of public relations and its first senior female executive, was arrested Thursday for allegedly importing the painkiller oxycodone. She was the first foreign Toyota executive to be fully stationed in Japan, and was in the process of moving her belongings from California. At a hastily called news conference Friday, Toyoda bowed and apologized for the troubles set off by the arrest of Hamp,...

Julie Hamp (pictured above), Toyota Motor Corporation's recently promoted global chief communications officer and top female executive, has found herself behind bars after allegedly running afoul of Japan's strict prescription drug laws. Tokyo police claim that Oxycodone was sent to her from the US and discovered by Japanese customs. Hamp was arrested at her hotel on June 18.

Today, we requested that the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform undertake an "independent" investigation of the General Motors ignition switch recall delay, in light of newly obtained emails by lawyers suing GM. Those emails suggest that the Treasury may have timed its final sale of GM shares to precede public knowledge of the ignition switch fiasco. They also cast doubt on GM CEO Mary Barra's previous account of what she knew and when she knew it. Here is the text of a letter I sent today to Rep. Jason Chaffetz, in photo, the incoming Chairman of the...

Toyota Motor is finalising plans for its first passenger car assembly plant in Mexico that could be approved by its board as early as next month, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The plant would make the popular Corolla compact sedan and begin production in 2019. Based on recent investments by rivals, including Volkswagen, a new assembly plant would represent an investment of over $1 billion for Toyota. A green light for the plant would signal an end to a 3-year expansion freeze imposed by the Japanese automaker's president Akio Toyoda, who has blamed aggressive expansion a...

Who says that you can’t make anything useful on a desktop 3D printer? Sure, there are plenty of designs that you can find on 3D printing repository websites which make you question the motive of the designers — but at the same time, there are engineers and designers creating things that make you just stop and say, “WOW!” One of these latter instances comes in the form of a 3D printed 5-speed transmission for a Toyota 22RE engine, created by a mechanical engineer named Eric Harrell of Santa Cruz, California. Not only does it look legitimate, but it also is...

Meet the fast-charging, affordable ‘future’ car that Elon Musk hates By Drew Harwell February 25 at 8:00 AM The Toyota that runs on hydrogen fuel cells(3:23) Toyota's Mirai will be one of the first mass-market cars to run on hydrogen fuel cells, which convert compressed hydrogen gas to electricity, leaving water vapor as the only exhaust. (Toyota) Toyota this week officially rolled out what it's betting will mark "a turning point" in automotive history — a sleek, affordable, eco-friendly "future" car that can drive for 300 miles, takes less than five minutes to charge and comes with three years of free fuel.It's everything haters of gas-guzzling...

Mark Oberholtzer isn't an Islamic fighter in Syria. He's never been to Syria. And the plumber from Texas City, Texas, says he certainly would never willingly aid fundamentalist rebels. So it's hard for him to understand how his Ford F-250 pickup truck - including his logo for Mark-1 Plumbing and his phone number - wound up being in a photo posted on Twitter by the extremist Ansar al-Deen Front from the front lines of the war in Syria. Mr Oberholtzer says he's been getting hundreds of phone calls and faxes since the Ansar al-Deen Front tweeted a picture of what...

The latest version of the company’s Sienna minivan has a feature called “Driver Easy Speak.” It uses a built-in microphone to amplify a parent’s voice through speakers in the back seats. Toyota says it added Easy Speak “so parents don’t have to shout to passengers in the back.” But chances are many parents will yell into the microphone anyway. And the feature only works one way, so the kids can’t talk back. At least not with amplified voices. The feature is an option on the 2015 Sienna, which is being refreshed with a totally new interior. It also has an...

I don't want to cite any one source for this one since a lot of the sites you'll see this story on are not exactly right of center pollitically... Nonetheless anybody can do a simple Google search on [ ISIS toyota trucks ] and multiple versions of the story will turn up, along with images, e.g. The question you have to ask yourself is, Could I afford a new Toyota truck that easily?? If the answer is no, than you should be bent out of shape more than a little bit here. Real rebels and terrorists are supposed to be...

Toyota is hot on hydrogen fuel cells for its next-generation cars, but it’s not going cold on internal combustion just yet. The company’s R&D division has developed a Free Piston Engine Linear Generator that can convert gasoline and other fuels into electricity more efficiently than existing systems.

Another blow was struck for competition, common sense and low taxes as Toyota Motor Corp. announced that it will be moving its campus in Torrance, California to a suburb outside of Dallas, Texas. “Toyota Motor Corp. is moving substantial parts of its U.S. headquarters in Torrance, Calif., to suburban Dallas,” writes the Detroit News, “as the world’s largest automaker seeks savings from its U.S. sales unit, people familiar with the matter said.” Although no figures are yet available, anecdotal evidence suggests that people are fleeing California, not just companies. SFGate.com says that 66% of all state revenue now comes...

When it comes to inclusion and equal treatment of LBGT employees, Toyota is at the top of the list. And it helps that the majority of Toyota employees live in a tolerant state like California. But could that change when the company's U.S. headquarters move to Texas in a few years? Toyota is moving 5,300 employees from California (and some in New York and Kentucky) to Plano, Texas, a move Texas welcomed with open arms and an open pocketbook. It'll serve as a devastating blow to Torrance, Calif., who was apparently blindsided by the news. By all accounts, Plano seems...

<p>Torrance Mayor Frank Scotto blames the state of California for Toyota Motor's decision to relocate its North American headquarters from the city to Plano, Texas.</p> <p>"The state of California lost Toyota," Scotto said on "Power Lunch" Tuesday.</p> <p>He pointed to a number of issues in the Golden State that negatively affect companies' bottom line: tax structure, workers' compensation and liability insurance.</p>

The car-making giant Toyota is going to move its U.S. headquarters from the liberal state of California to the much more red state of Texas, according to several sources. The Dallas Morning News stated that the auto company is looking at a massive plant location in Plano, Texas — although an exact location hasn’t been determined yet. Toyota’s move will involve over 5,000 employees. Many experts view this as a “win” for both Texas and its Republican governor, Rick Perry. The governor has been actively recruiting companies from all over the country to move to the Lone Star State, touting...

Another blow was struck for competition, common sense and low taxes as Toyota Motor Corp. announced that they be moving their campus in Torrance, California to a suburb outside of Dallas, Texas. “Toyota Motor Corp. is moving substantial parts of its U.S. headquarters in Torrance, Calif., to suburban Dallas,” writes the Detroit News, “as the world’s largest automaker seeks savings from its U.S. sales unit, people familiar with the matter said.” Although no figures are yet available, anecdotal evidence suggests that people are fleeing California, not just companies. SFGate.com says that 66% of all state revenue now comes from personal...

Rick Perry Takes A Victory Lap After Texas Takes Toyota From California Hunter Walker April 28, 2014, 5:04 PM ï‚™ Texas Gov. Rick Perry thinks Texas' "employer-friendly combination of low taxes, fair courts, smart regulations, and world-class workforce" are responsible for Toyota's decision to move its sales headquarters from California to the Lone Star State. "Over the past decade, Texas and Toyota have developed a strong partnership that has resulted in good-paying jobs for thousands of Texans," Perry said in a statement about the automakers move Monday. "Toyota understands that TexasÂ’ employer-friendly combination of low taxes, fair courts, smart regulations...

For Japanese auto brands, the logic of keeping their U.S. sales and administrative arms in California is breaking down under the outsized penalties of conducting business in the Golden State and the changing dynamics of the North American automotive industry. So Toyota is leaving, according to Automotive News. And where is Japan’s biggest automaker relocating its sales and marketing operations in America? Why, North Texas, of course. The move MOVE -5.08% to Plano, Texas, will involve most of the 5,000 managers and employees at Toyota’s current Torrance, Calif., headquarters, the magazine said. Texas Gov. Rick Perry apparently didn’t even have...

The world’s leading automotive maker will follow the lead of its competitors and other large businesses, and leave California for better business climates elsewhere. Toyota had its US headquarters in Torrance for more than three decades, but now nearly 5,000 jobs will shift to Texas: Toyota Motor Corp. plans to move large numbers of jobs from its sales and marketing headquarters in Torrance to suburban Dallas, according to a person familiar with the automaker’s plans. …The automaker won’t be the first big company Texas has poached from California.Occidental Petroleum Corp. said in February that it was relocating from Los...