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Toyota moving US headquarters to Plano, Texas

It's official, Toyota is relocating its US operations to Plano, TX. And it won't be a symbolic 'all ranch and no cattle' gesture - the Japanese automaker, whose headquarters have been in California since 1957, has decided to base nearly all of its operations in the Lone Star State, including much of its engineering, finance and sales and marketing teams.
The move, which will see the establishment of a new headquarters campus in the Dallas suburb will not only affect employees at the company's current Torrance, CA Toyota Motor Sales USA campus, it will also touch the lives of thousands of employees at the company's other operations, including 1,000 workers at Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America in Erlanger, KY and some New York-based staff as well. The Toyota Technical Center in Ann Arbor, MI is not facing relocation, however, and it actually stands to gain responsibilities as Toyota overhauls its US org chart. Toyota says that its reorganization will affect about 4,000 employees in total.
According to Automotive News, while Toyota is adopting an "'everyone is invited' stance for the relocation," some attrition is expected from employees who aren't interested in relocating southward from the Golden State. For its part, the automaker is reportedly making expenses-paid visits to Plano available to full-time staffers and spouses to help them make the relocation decision, as well as a lump-sump payment if they decide to go through with the move.

Safety Agency Studying Toyota Acceleration Problem

A U.S. safety agency is looking into a consumer's petition alleging that older Toyota Corollas can accelerate unexpectedly at low speeds and cause crashes. The inquiry by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration covers about 1.69 million of the Corolla compact cars from the 2006 to 2010 model years. The agency will decide whether to open a formal investigation into the problem. An unidentified consumer said in a letter to the agency that he experienced multiple low-speed surges in a 2010 Corolla, and the brakes failed to stop the car in time to prevent a crash. The consumer said the problem caused one collision with a parked vehicle on June 8. "In addition to evidence from our crash incident, we are providing evidence that many other Corolla owners are experiencing similarly unsafe scenarios that are leading to crashes," said a portion of the consumer's letter posted Monday on NHTSA's website. The consumer provided 163 reports from other drivers who experienced a surge at low speed or no speed. But NHTSA said it eliminated duplicates, those outside the scope of the 2006-2010 model years and those from foreign countries to get 141. No injuries were reported. The agency said it would evaluate all of the complaints from the consumer in order to decide whether to grant or deny the petition and open a formal investigation. The consumer filed the petition on Sept. 11, according to the documents. Messages were left Monday morning seeking comment from Toyota. In 2009 and 2010, Toyota issued a series of recalls totaling more than 10 million vehicles for various problems including faulty brakes, sticky gas pedals and ill-fitting floor mats. Toyota is under pressure to announce recalls quickly after a U.S. government investigation found it hid information about past defects. Last month, the company agreed to pay $1.2 billion to settle that investigation. It also paid fines totaling $66 million to the U.S. government for delays in reporting unintended acceleration problems. The company has said it made "fundamental changes to become a more responsive and customer-focused organization, and we are committed to continued improvements." Recalls Toyota Safety NHTSA crash unintended acceleration

Toyota has now sold over 7 million hybrids

You take your victories where you can. In Toyota's case, that means disclosing the cumulative total of hybrid sales since the first Prius was sold in Japan in 1997. And that number is impressive. During its monthly conference call discussing sales, Toyota representatives noted that the automaker has sold over 7 million hybrids during the past 17 years. The Japanese automaker started selling the Prius in the Japan in 1997 (and in US in 2000) and firmly established itself as the world's largest hybrid maker. Today, Toyota sells four Prius models as well as gas-electric versions of the Camry, Avalon and Highlander in the US. Of course, such big sales aren't always easy to match, and Toyota's been lagging behind 2013's numbers all year. Including its Lexus division, Toyota's green-car sales including the low-volume RAV4 electric vehicle fell 10 percent from a year earlier in September to just over 21,000 vehicles. Through the first three quarters of the year, Toyota's green-car sales were down 9.1 percent to almost 247,000 vehicles. That still dwarfs any other automakers' green-car numbers. Toyota crossed the 6 million hybrid threshold in January when it doubled the 3 million total from March 2011. Toyota will start selling its first mass-produced hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle in Europe next summer, and hopes that it will repeat the long-term success that the Prius has enjoyed, according to Automotive News Europe. For a transcript of the September sales call, click here.