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2015 Toyota Sienna

It's hard to love a minivan, but it's very, very easy to use one. More than any other kind of vehicle - save a panel van, perhaps - the minivan is the most appliance-like of four-wheeled transportation devices. And most minivan buyers don't need to love their purchases; they just need to use them. So when it comes to a minivan's driving dynamics, who cares?
Well, we do. So we perked right up when Toyota talked about refinements it made to the 2015 Sienna, starting with some 142 added spot welds made to the body structure. Normally not stop-the-presses stuff, but Toyota says the added reinforcements prompted Sienna engineers to recalibrate the springs and shocks for improved handling, and our very limited wheel time along the (admittedly benign) roads on the Big Island of Hawaii revealed the 2015 Sienna SE model's handling to be tidier and more engaging than you'd expect for a porky, 4,560-pound, eight-passenger box on wheels.
Driving Notes

Anti-EV messaging alive and well at Toyota, sort of

The folks at Toyota in Japan can be pretty blunt about electric-vehicle technology prospects as a viable transportation alternative to the internal combustion engine. Here in the states? Slightly more sanguine. Toyota global head of research and development Mitsuhisa Kato, according to Automotive News, discounts the potential of substantial EV sales in the near future because the appropriate technology that provides comparable driving distances and fill-up times relative to conventional vehicles doesn't yet exist. While Toyota has been conducting testing programs with shorter-commute-distance EVs in countries such as Japan and France, its only production EV in the US is the RAV4 EV, and Toyota sold just 546 of those in the States during the first half of the year. Toyota is much more excited about the debut of its first hydrogen fuel-cell production vehicle, in both Japan and the US, next year. Toyota Motor North America spokeswoman Jana Hartline was a little more charitable when discussing the EV's prospects in an interview with AutoblogGreen. "For shorter range, EVs serve a really great purpose, but as far as having equal mile range to an internal combustion engine, there's going to need to be some serious breakthroughs," Hartline said. "And that where the fuel cell comes in." Last month, Toyota said its fuel-cell sedan that will debut in Japan next April will be priced at about $69,000, though the company emphasized that it shouldn't be assumed it will be priced similarly in the US and Europe. Toyota hasn't released many performance details, though the sedan is expected to have a full (hydrogen) tank range of about 435 miles, or about five times that of a Nissan Leaf. Read here for Autoblog's First Drive of Toyota's fuel-cell sedan.

Toyota's 'green bond' an industry first, quickly rises to $1.75 billion

Toyota is greasing the skids for more green car purchases with the announcement of a $1.75-billion bond designed to finance the purchase of high-efficiency Toyota and Lexus models. The Asset-Backed Green Bond is a first for the automotive industry and is making a lot of money available to buy or lease the following vehicles: any of the four Prius variants, Camry Hybrid, Avalon Hybrid, RAV4 EV, Lexus CT 200h and Lexus ES 300h. Originally, the bond was set at $1.25 billion, but Justin Leach, manager of public relations for Toyota Financial Services (TFS), told AutoblogGreen that demand was high and it was quickly oversubscribed. TFS has been looking at more ways to diversify its portfolio after a Diversity & Inclusion Bond that was announced in early 2013 and, with the new Green Bond, TFS is offering something for the "number of investors out there who are looking for investment opportunities in green." The way the money from the bond is used, basically, is that TFS takes the $1.75 billion and uses it to finance the purchase or lease of the nine vehicles listed above. As of right now, all the eligible vehicles are plug-in or hybrids, but the rules simply say that the cars in the program have to meet certain "powertrain, fuel efficiency and emissions" criteria. That means: Minimum EPA estimated MPG (or MPG equivalent for alternative fuel vehicles) of 35 city / 35 highway California Low-Emission Vehicle II (LEV II) certification of super ultra-low emission vehicles (SULEVs) or higher, which would include partial zero emissions vehicles (PZEVs) and zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs). TFS raises plenty of billions in other ways for the rest of the lineup, and got into asset backed securities in 2010, Leach said. Given the success of this first Green Bond, Leach said he expects TFS to keep this idea in its arsenal. "This one was so well received, I would be surprised if we didn't see it again," he said. "If anyone was going to do it, it should be Toyota, right?" Toyota Financial Services (TFS) Issues Auto Industry's First-Ever Asset-Backed Green Bond Bond Proceeds to Fund Consumer Loans and Leases for Toyota's Leading Portfolio of Green Vehicles TORRANCE, Calif., (March 24, 2014) – Toyota Financial Services (TFS) issued the auto industry's first-ever Asset-Backed Green Bond in the amount of $1.75 billion.