2014 Toyota Avalon Limited on 2040-cars

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Toyota calling for independent, industry-wide Takata airbag testing

The initiative is still very new, and there's no set timeframe for this third-party testing to begin. With Takata's airbag inflator recall expanding nationwide soon, the scope of this safety campaign is only growing, and is set to affect millions of additional vehicles. Toyota thinks that it can help, though. The Japanese automaker has announced an initiative to get all of the affected companies to band together to fund independent, third-party testing of the faulty components. The goal of this work is to "ensure the inflators that require replacement are accurately identified and promptly fixed," according to Toyota. All of the data would be shared among the participating automakers to better understand the causes of these problems, which still aren't entirely known, and come up with the best way to repair the affected vehicles. "By combining our collective efforts behind a coordinated, comprehensive testing program, we believe we can achieve greater results. Together we will be better equipped to address this issue more rapidly for all customers," said Simon Nagata, President and CEO, Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, in the company's release. According to Toyota spokesperson Cindy Knight speaking to Autoblog, the initiative is still very new, and there's no set timeframe for this third-party testing to begin. The automaker's first step is simply getting the word out that it's looking for partners. She said Toyota "has spoken with colleagues in the industry" about setting up the independent evaluations and specifically said the company has already reached out to Honda and Ford about possibly working together on this. Honda also released a statement calling for similar third party testing, and when reached for comment about Toyota's proposal, Ford spokesperson Kelli Felker responded: "Ford takes the safety of our customers very seriously. We plan to join the proposed industry wide effort to investigate and develop solutions to address this critical issue. We look forward to discussing next steps with NHTSA and other automakers." Scroll down to read Toyota and Honda's full announcements of these safety initiative.

Toyota is world's top-selling automaker for second year in a row

Toyota is the top-selling automaker in the world. Again. Still. With total reported sales, including those from subsidiaries, of 9.98 million in 2013, Toyota's performance was enough to outpace rival General Motors by around 270,000 vehicles. That's a 2.4-percent gain over 2012, and it makes Toyota the top-seller two years in a row. Still, the gap between the top three is shrinking - Toyota held a 460,000-unit lead in 2012.
GM sold 9.71 million vehicles last year, a four-percent increase, coming in second place ahead of Volkswagen, which sold around 9.5 million. According to Bloomberg, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda said his company managed to win the sales race while also remaining more profitable than GM or VW.
It's going to be another interesting year in 2014 as the three behemoth automakers vie for the title of World's Largest. Toyota has predicted that it will increase sales in 2014 to 10.32 million - which would make Toyota the first automaker ever to surpass 10 million global sales - though General Motors and VW are expected to again fight for the lead in the massive Chinese market. Stay tuned.

Toyota JV will sell Leahead EVs in China next year

You may have read that Toyota is about to establish a new electric vehicle sub-brand in China called Leahead that will focus on "cheap electric cars aimed at young and hip car buyers in China." This isn't 100 percent true, but the Japanese automaker is revving its electric motors for EVs in China, in a fashion. It makes sense for automakers to push for more EVs in China, given government support for the technology and the proven success of Tesla there. Low-speed EVs are popular, as well. Indirectly, Toyota is going to sell electric vehicles to Chinese customers next year. We've heard reports before that Toyota is interested in going electric in China, with a different Toyota JV and thus a different brand but now we have an official word on Toyota's future EV moves in China, direct from Jana Hartline, the environmental communications manager for Toyota Motor Sales, USA. Hartline told AutoblogGreen that Toyota just celebrated the 10-year anniversary of GAC Toyota Motor Co., Ltd (GTMC), its joint-venture manufacturing company in China. And it is GTMC, not Toyota directly, that is the company behind Leahead (called Ling Zhi in Chinese). Leahead will begin selling EVs under the Ling Zhi brand starting in 2015. So, yes, indirectly, Toyota is going to sell electric vehicles to Chinese customers next year. There are rumors that the new EVs will be electric versions of the Corolla EX and/or the Yaris L, but we've got nothing confirmed on that front. We will be waiting for more new at the Shanghai Motor Show next April.