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Toyota Looks to Follow Prius' Hybrid Hit

Check out this fasincating Associated Press interview with Takeshi Uchiyamada, the Toyota engineer who masterminded the iconic Prius under tremendous pressure from management to "come up with the 21st century car, the vehicle that would hands-down beat the competition in mileage and environmental friendliness."

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 4:01 PM to Alternative fuels , Toyota | Permalink | Comments 0

Saab Turbo X: Black to the Future at New England Auto Show

Saab will launch the Turbo X at the New England International Auto Show in Boston. The press day on Nov. 27 will mark the North American debut of the Saab Turbo X – a performance car that sets new standards for the brand.

The all-black Turbo X takes Saab ‘back to the future’ by evoking the iconic appeal of its first black 99 and 900 Turbo models. It also introduces innovative Saab XWD all-wheel drive technology.

Saab of Sweden is a subsidairy of General Motors

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 3:56 PM to GM | Permalink | Comments 0

Backseat Driver: The Toyoda Precepts and Toyota's current Guiding Principles

Here are the business precepts developed by Sakichi Toyoda, an inventor who founded the Toyota Motor Sales Company and whose son Kiichiro got the company into the automobile business:

1. Be contributive to the development and welfare of the country by working together, regardless of position, in faithfully fulfilling your duties.

2. Be at the vanguard of the times through endless creativity, inquisitiveness and the pursuit of improvement.

3. Be practical and avoid frivolity.

4. Be kind and generous; strive to create a warm, homelike atmosphere.

5. Be reverent, and show gratitude for things great and small in thought and deed.

Toyota's current guiding principles, which were established in 1990 and revised in 1997, retain the flavor of the original precepts. Here they are as listed on its Web site:

1. Honor the language and spirit of the law of every nation and undertake open and fair corporate activities to be a good corporate citizen of the world.

2. Respect the culture and customs of every nation and contribute to economic and social development through corporate activities in the communities.

3. Dedicate ourselves to providing clean and safe products and to enhancing the quality of life everywhere through all our activities.

4. Create and develop advanced technologies and provide outstanding products and services that fulfill the needs of customers worldwide.

5. Foster a corporate culture that enhances individual creativity and teamwork value, while honoring mutual trust and respect between labor and management.

6. Pursue growth in harmony with the global community through innovative management.

7. Work with business partners in research and creation to achieve stable, long-term growth and mutual benefits, while keeping ourselves open to new partnerships.

- Peter C.T. Elsworth

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:51 AM to Toyota , commentary | Permalink | Comments 0

Backseat Driver: Toyota came to the U.S. 50 years ago

Fifty years ago this week, Toyota Motor Sales Co. introduced the Toyopet Crown into the U.S. market out of a former Rambler dealership in Hollywood. The car was not a great success and sold only 2,000 models by 1961 before being pulled.

But in 1965 Toyota introduced the Corona and in 1968 the Corolla; combined sales of these models totaled about 125,000 in 1969 and the rest is history.

This week's edition of the authoritive Automotive News includes a 192-page supplement devoted to the anniversary of Toyota's arrival in the United States.

"This is the company that changed the world," it writes in a lead editorial, noting that not only has Toyota grown to challenge GM as the world's biggest auto maker but has had a profound influence on how every other auto maker operates.

"The list of advances is long," it continues. "The single-minded focus on quality, the striving for customer satisfaction, the early emphasis on fuel economy, Lexus, lean manufacturing, collaborative supplier relations, hybrid vehicles."

Automotive News argues that Toyota embodies the combined genius of three giants of the American auto industry: Henry Ford, Alfred P. Sloan (General Motors) and Walter Chrysler who were "respectively masterminds of manufacturing, corporate governance and engineering."

It adds that while there are a number of key individuals involved in Toyota's success, it is "the ultimate team." (See a separate entry outlining the precepts of good business as developed by family patriarch Sakichi Toyoda.)

For his part, Keith E. Crain, publisher and editor-in-chief of Automotive News, writes that Toyota is now part of the American landscape.

"There are more than 1,400 Toyota, Lexus and Scion dealerships across the country. Toyota has assembly plants from one end of North America to the other and component suppliers throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico."

"Toyota dealers are among the most profitable," he writes. "And Toyota still believes that the retail automobile dealer is the company's customer, a philosophy that is unique in the automobile business."

Crain concedes that the gasoline crises of the 1970s gave a boost to Toyota as Americans turned to smaller, more fuel efficient cars. But then they found the cars were well made and reliable and continued to buy them in greater and greater numbers.

Detroit tried to stiff arm the competition over the years, but Toyota met the challenge both by moving manufacturing over here and moving into a wider range of market segments - upscale with Lexus, blue collar with trucks, trendy with Scion and granola crunchy with the Prius.

Indeed, 2007 marked a watershed as Toyota introduced its full-size Tundra pickup truck, thus taking on Detroit in a segment long dominated by Ford and GM, and becoming a sponsor of America's new favorite sporting event, NASCAR.

So all hail a genuine Japanese-American success story - one that we could all learn from.

- Peter C.T. Elsworth

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:10 AM to commentary | Permalink | Comments 0

Stop Your Engines! The Artist Is Tracing

Check out this New York Times story about an artist who gets her inspiration from auto skid marks:

WHEN the Los Angeles artist Ingrid Calame wanted to trace the skid marks on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the track’s manager was skeptical. “The request was pretty unusual,” said the manager, Dan Edwards, who in his eight years at the speedway has provided special access to people testing tires, engines and racecars.

Then he researched Ms. Calame’s boldly colored compositions, derived from stains and graffiti that she traces from city streets and sidewalks. And he realized that the racetrack “was like a canvas,” he said in a phone interview. “There were stories that went with every tire mark, every gouge.”

One pattern was a famous pretzel-shaped skid mark made by Dan Wheldon in 2005 after his Indianapolis 500 victory. Now an enamel and latex wall painting based on his celebratory gesture is the 76-by-20-foot centerpiece of “Ingrid Calame: Traces of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” opening Friday at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 10:25 AM to Fun | Permalink | Comments 0

NYT's slideshow from Tokyo Motor Show

Check out the New York Times' slideshow from the Tokyo Motor Show.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 10:19 AM to Shows | Permalink | Comments 0

Tokyo Motor Show split between fast and green

Honda CR-Z hybrid concept.

Chiba, Japan - The Tokyo Motor Show, which opened to the public in this suburban city on Saturday and runs through Nov. 11, is a showcase of the automobile industry’s split personality, according to the New York Times.

The industry indeed seems increasingly to be of two minds, and the split between them is becoming more like a fracture.

On the one hand, the Tokyo show offers the requisite number of socially responsible hybrid concept cars, alternative-fuel propulsion systems and traffic-congestion-relieving technologies.

On the other, there is a bigger collection of the newest engine-revving, pollutant-belching, tire-smoking supercars. Can this house, so divided, continue to stand?

For the time being, the NYT writes, the supercars seem to be taking the fast lane to dealer showrooms.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 10:09 AM to Auto industry , Shows | Permalink | Comments 0

California gears up for car emissions fight

California plans to sue the Environmental Protection Agency this week for delaying a decision over whether to let the state aggressively reduce car and truck tailpipe emissions, according to USA Today.

The lawsuit's outcome could affect not only the California law aimed at cutting greenhouse gases but also the ability of other states to take similar actions.

At stake are regulations California approved in 2004 that would require all new car models sold in the state, beginning in 2009, to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. The rules would lower heat-trapping gases from California vehicles by 18% by 2020, the California Air Resources Board says.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 10:07 AM to Environment | Permalink | Comments 0

GM to Set Up Research Center in Shanghai

BEIJING -- General Motors Corp. said Monday it will set up a $250 million alternative-fuel research center in Shanghai amid efforts by global automakers to produce commercially viable alternatives to gasoline engines, according to the Associated Press.Global automakers are stepping up research into fuel cells, biofuels, diesel and other power sources amid rising demand from governments and consumers for cleaner transportation and an alternative to expensive oil.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 9:55 AM to Alternative fuels , China , GM | Permalink | Comments 0

Oil leaps to record over $93

LONDON - Oil leapt to a record high for a third day, surpassing $93 as Mexico briefly halted one-fifth of its production and the dollar struck new lows, according to Reuters.

U.S. crude hit a high of $93.20 a barrel. Oil prices have soared by more than a third since mid-August as a stand-off between Turkey and Kurdish rebels, dollar weakness, easing interest rates and winter supply fears attracted a fresh wave of investment capital.

Prices rose on Monday after Mexico's state-owned oil company Pemex said it was shutting about 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil output due to bad weather in the Gulf of Mexico.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 9:53 AM to Crude oil market | Permalink | Comments 0