2014 Toyota Rav4 Le on 2040-cars

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Toyota sees profit slip but beat earlier forecasts

TOKYO — ToyotaÂ’s July-September profit fell 11% from a year earlier as the coronavirus pandemic slammed global demand, but JapanÂ’s top automaker appeared to be holding up better than weaker rivals that have sunk into the red. Toyota reported Friday a quarterly profit of 470.5 billion yen ($4.5 billion), down from 530 billion yen a year ago. Quarterly sales slipped to 6.77 trillion yen ($65 billion) from 7.64 trillion yen. Its president, Akio Toyoda, told reporters Toyota employees worked extremely hard, including making masks and face shields and boosting efficiency at factories to achieve results despite the pandemic. “Toyota has become gradually stronger,” he said, offering gratitude and praise for how resilient Toyota has proven itself to be. “This shows how each individual worked so hard,” said Toyoda, the grandson of the automakerÂ’s founder, vowing that each of its employees will keep thinking about contributing to a better world. Toyota raised its global sales forecast to 9.4 million vehicles for the fiscal year through March 2021, better than its earlier forecast for 9.1 million vehicles. ThatÂ’s still lagging behind the more than 10.5 million vehicles sold in the last fiscal year. Toyota, based in Toyota city in Aichi, central Japan, said it expects to record a 1.4 trillion yen ($13.5 billion) profit for the fiscal year. It earlier projected 730 billion yen ($7 billion) in profit. Toyota, which makes Lexus luxury models and the Prius hybrid, recorded 2 trillion yen ($19 billion) in profit the previous fiscal year. ToyotaÂ’s operating income fell in most regions, including Japan and other Asian markets, but improved in North America. Operating Officer Kenta Kon expressed caution about the U.S. outlook, given the rising coronavirus cases. But he said ToyotaÂ’s latest models were popular, and dealers were adjusting incentives to get good results. All the worldÂ’s automakers have been slammed by shrinking demand as COVID-19 squelches economic activity. Some nations, including Japan, have sunk into recession. Although uncertainties persist about further outbreaks and when a vaccine might be available, there are signs of recovery in some parts of the world. Japan has managed to keep pandemic-related deaths at fewer than 2,000. It has reported about 105,000 cases nationwide.

2014 Toyota Camry to get 'significant' attention?

With competition from Ford, Chevrolet, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda and Nissan mounting, Toyota is getting set to unveil a refreshed version of its Camry sedan a mere two years after it was fully redesigned.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Toyota's move to freshen the still young Camry comes as it seeks to retain its US sales crown in the midsize segment. That desperation has lead to increased incentives and fleet sales in a bid to keep its title, all while trying to keep pace with a slew of very competent competitors.
"It's safe to say we'll be doing something with it," Bill Fay, group vice president of the Toyota brand in the US, told Bloomberg during last week's LA Auto Show. "We'll be paying significant attention to Camry next year."

Electrify Expo is an all-electrified auto show like the old days

In late July, Autoblog swung by Washington, D.C. to check out the Electrify Expo. Now in its third year of nationwide shows, the Electrify Expo calls itself “North America's largest electric vehicle festival filled with over 1 million square feet of the world's top electric brands.” At every stop, visitors can find out about, crawl around in, drive and ride just about any personal conveyance that uses a battery for propulsion. Truth be told, when the show's PR team reached out to us with an invite, we only considered going after finding out about an area showcasing battery-electric tuner cars. EV tuning is undoubtedly going to be huge—eventually—which got us curious about these early days. We figured weÂ’d brave whatever the rest of the expo was to find out whatÂ’s the equivalent of nitrous for a Tesla. See, the EV event scene is still such that one never knows if theyÂ’ll show up to a mix of science and county fairs with a few cars on display just for truth in advertising, or if theyÂ’ll show up to a parking lot with 26 cars, 10 of them locked, 10 of them homemade, and 6 guarded by promotional hires desperate to tap all your identifying info a tablet before dispensing dubious and superficial information. Which is to say, we didnÂ’t expect much. And that makes us chuffed to report: Electrify Expo is great. We hadnÂ’t been strolling the lot outside the old RFK Stadium for five minutes before thinking, “This feels like an old-school auto show!” The exclamation to that point came from a group of four who cut me off to reach the C40 Recharge in the Volvo booth, one of them exclaiming as if he were the group expert and as if his friends were deaf, “THATÂ’S THE LEAST EXPENSIVE ONE! AND ITÂ’S BEEEE-YOUUUUU-TI-FULLLLLL!” I wasnÂ’t there to judge, I was there for the enthusiasm. Automakers had built small, simple, open booths, parked cars in them, then provided visitors the kind of interactions that will do the most good for anyone wondering about or interested in an EV. We only saw two cars that were off limits, the new Volkswagen ID.Buzz and the Ford F-100 Eluminator. Volvo wouldnÂ’t let me get an espresso from their chic little trailer, either, unless I visited the EX90 Experience trailer first. Otherwise, it was a free-for-all. Tesla had a large booth full of cars. BMW had two i7s open for everyone to sit in, next to the Ford booth with that Eluminator and an unlocked Mustang Mach-E GT and F-150 Lightning showing their cooler-chest-frunk trick.