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Toyota i-Road is no less strange in the flesh

We've seen plenty of three-wheeled creations in our day, but none quite like the Toyota i-Road Concept. The "personal mobility vehicle" offers seating for two with driver and passenger positioned in a tandem position. While that may sound more like a motorcycle than a car, the closed cockpit means riders don't need a helmet. The design also takes a page from the 2008 Peugeot HyMotion3 Concept with an articulating front suspension that allows the driver to lean through corners thanks to "Active Lean" self-balancing technology. Unlike the funky Pug, however, the i-Road is a fully electric plug-in vehicle.
While there are just five-horsepower on hand from an electric motor, the i-Road should serve up a range of around 30 miles thanks to its lithium-ion battery, and Toyota claims the cells can be topped off in three hours with a "conventional domestic power supply." Sounds majestic. Take in the full press release below.

Toyota close to licensing deal with BMW for fuel cell technology

For over a year now, we've been hearing about a potential partnership between Toyota and BMW on everything from sports cars to lithium-ion batteries, but one of the first cooperative projects between these two automakers could bring Toyota's hydrogen fuel cell technology to a BMW vehicle. Reuters is reporting that an announcement is likely to be made as soon as later this week regarding a BMW fuel cell vehicle that could be in production by 2020 with a prototype running around by 2015.
The last we heard of Toyota's fuel cell technology, it was in the FCV-R Concept that we saw at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show, but there is no word how far along in development this system is. If it does come to fruition, such a vehicle for BMW would build on the automaker's commitment to hydrogen that started with the Hydrogen 7, which unlike a fuel cell vehicle, simply ran on hydrogen fuel rather than converting it to electricity for use in motors. We're definitely interested where this Toyota/BMW tie up could be headed.

Toyota restructuring US operations, possibly moving to Texas

According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, Toyota is poised to announce Monday that it is restructuring its US operations, which may include plans to relocate some of its operations to Texas. Toyota Motor Sales has been located in California since 1957, and is responsible for North American sales, marketing, and distribution for Toyota, Lexus and Scion. According to Toyota literature, its Torrance operations presently employs 6,156 workers and represents a $2.3-billion investment.
Workers in Toyota's Torrance offices were abuzz about the possible relocation to Texas. One young offspring of a Toyota employee even posted to Twitter that her parents warned about the upcoming move, and she said she's refusing to go.
Rumors at one point had Toyota settling in Richardson, TX, just outside Plano. But Autoblog talked to Richardson Mayor Laura Maczka, who said she would be thrilled if that were true, but has not heard anything on the subject. Autoblog also emailed with Bill Sutherland, a city councilman in Torrance, CA, who said, "To date the only info I have is what I have read in the paper expecting a press release Monday."