2014 Toyota Prius Two on 2040-cars

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Major automakers urge Trump not to freeze fuel economy targets

WASHINGTON — Major automakers are telling the Trump administration they want to reach an agreement with California to avoid a legal battle over fuel efficiency standards, and they support continued increases in mileage standards through 2025. "We support standards that increase year over year that also are consistent with marketplace realities," Mitch Bainwol, chief executive of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing major automakers, will tell a U.S. House of Representatives panel on Tuesday, according to written testimony released on Monday. The Trump administration is weighing how to revise fuel economy standards through at least the 2025 model year, and one option is to propose freezing the standards through 2026, effectively allowing automakers to delay investments in technology to cut greenhouse gas emissions from burning petroleum. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has not formally submitted its joint proposal with the Environmental Protection Agency to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review. Even so, last week, California and 16 other states sued to challenge the Trump administration's decision to revise U.S. vehicle rules. Auto industry executives have held meetings with the Trump administration for months and have urged the administration to try to reach a deal with California even as they support slowing the pace of reduction in carbon dioxide emissions that the Obama administration rules outlined. One automaker official said part of the message to President Donald Trump at a meeting on Friday will be to consider California like a foreign trade deal that needs to be renegotiated. Automakers want to urge him to get automakers a "better deal" — as opposed to potentially years of litigation between major states and federal regulators. On Friday, Trump is set to meet with the chief executives of General Motors, Ford, Fiat Chrysler and the top U.S. executives of at least five other major automakers, including Toyota, Volkswagen AG and Daimler AG, to talk about revisions to the vehicle rules. Senior EPA and Transportation Department officials will also attend. Environmental groups are eager to keep the rules in place, saying they will save consumers billions in fuel costs. A coalition of groups plans to stage a protest outside Ford's headquarters in Michigan.

Toyota wants half its vehicles in Japan to be hybrids

The Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicle could signal the future of motoring with a somewhat accessible price and cutting-edge green technology, but there's no guarantee for the model actually spearheading a revolution in the marketplace. In the meantime, the Japanese brand is continuing to focus on its hybrid powertrains and actually plans to build even more of them. As soon as next year, half of Toyota's sales in Japan could be electrically assisted. According to the Nikkei Asian Review, Toyota is pushing to sell 760,000 hybrids in Japan in 2016, compared to 684,000 last year. That figure would account for half of the company's sales in that country, and the company plans to increase overall production of its gas-electric models. The automaker could build 1.32 million of them next year, which would be about 30 percent more than in 2014. There's actually a financial incentive for Toyota to try this green strategy. Japan's rules for tax breaks on efficient models are about to get more stringent. According to the Nikkei Asian Review, only about half of all new models are expected to meet the guidelines for the incentives, compared to over 80 percent now, and the change could cost buyers as much as 100,000 yen ($840) more. With the impending debut of the next-gen Prius and heightened hybrid production, Toyota can position itself as an attractive choice to customers. News Source: Nikkei Asian Review via Green Car CongressImage Credit: Kazuhiro Nogi / AFP / Getty Images Green Plants/Manufacturing Toyota Hybrid

Toyota issues stop sale on 6 key models over seat fabrics; recall possible? [UPDATE]

Toyota has issued a stop-sale order on six of its core models due to concerns about the flammability of certain seat fabrics. The issue rests not with the cloth and leather covers themselves, but with a piece of seat heater beneath them that fails to meet US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for flame retardancy.
There have been no reports of fires or injuries from the affected cars, which include some of Toyota's biggest volume sellers. 2013 and 2014 Camry, Camry Hybrid, Avalon and Sienna models equipped with heated seats are included in the stop-sale, as are 2014 Tundra pickups and Corolla sedans. The exact number of vehicles with the non-compliant materials are still being tabulated, according to The Detroit Free Press.
According to a Toyota spokesman, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been notified, although it remains to be seen if a recall will be issued. Outside of a full recall, though, it's unclear how Toyota will deal with vehicles equipped with the flammable materials that have already found homes.