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Toyota's HaMo urban mobility carsharing program comes to France

We're guessing no one's nuts enough to try to take one of Toyota's three-wheeled leaning electric i-Road vehicles up into the French Alps. Still, the town of Grenoble, France, which sits at the foot of the mountains, has received 35 of those vehicles as part of a carsharing pilot program. Toyota's thrown in 35 four-wheel Auto Body COMS vehicles into the program as well. Grenoble, which is about 200 miles north of Marseille, was presumably chosen because of existing carsharing programs run by Cite-lib. This program, dubbed "Cite lib by Ha:mo," goes a little more futuristic, though, as it's part of what Toyota calls its "Ha:mo" plan (Ha:mo is short for "harmonious mobility"). The program will run for three years and includes 27 charging stations near bus lines and train stations. The public will be charged anywhere from three to 19 euros ($3.80 to $24.50 US) to use the vehicles for between 15 minutes and four hours. The good news is that drivers can pick up the vehicles in one location and drop them off in another. Toyota started testing the i-Road vehicles in Toyota City, Japan, this past March. The trike is about three feet wide and has a top speed of 28 miles per hour. Check out Toyota's press release below and read AutoblogGreen's "First Drive" impressions of the i-Road here. "Cite lib by Ha:mo", a New Type of Urban Mobility Based on Ultra-Compact Electric Vehicles Connected to Public Transport, Launches in Grenoble, France This innovative car-sharing service aims to prepare the City and agglomeration of Grenoble for electric mobility within a comprehensive multi-modal mobility plan. The three-year trial project brings together the competencies and services of five partners: the City of Grenoble, the Metro Area, French electricity company EDF and its affiliate Sodetrel, Toyota, and Cite lib, the local car-sharing operator. 35 three-wheel Toyota i-ROAD and 35 four-wheel Toyota Auto Body COMS will be available for short city trips in 27 charging stations installed and operated by Sodetrel - including for one-way trips from one station to another. A total of 120 charging points for the project and 41 for other plug-in vehicles will be added to the city's transport infrastructure. A simple pricing plan dubbed "3, 2, 1 euros" for respectively the first, second and third 15-minute increments will be proposed to Grenoble citizens.

Meet the Most Elegant Automobile, and it's for sale

Alright, so maybe "most elegant" is a bit of a stretch, but we feel safe in calling the 1992 Toyota Paseo in the video below an "automobile." High praise, we know. Still, it's clear someone loves the awkward little coupe enough to produce a hilarious video to sell the thing. Henry Floyd worked up a quick parody of the over-the-top luxury car ads we all know and loathe, and while the finished product is a little skimpy on details like price or location, it certainly doesn't hold back on the exposition.
Hell, if we didn't already have a parade of horrible ideas floating around our collective driveways, we might even be convinced to give this little heap a new home. You can check out the ad for yourself below, just don't be surprised if you find yourself with a burning desire to own a Paseo.

Toyota Prius sets a different kind of Nurburgring lap record [w/video]

Scroll down the leaderboards of Nürburgring lap times and you'll see mostly racing cars, supercars and sports cars. Delve deep enough and you'll eventually get to hatchbacks and sedans, albeit the most performance-focused of their kind. But a hybrid? Sure, the Porsche 918 Spyder posted the top time for a street-legal series production car, and it's technically a hybrid, but we're talking about another kind of hybrid here. We're talking about a Toyota Prius.
That's right: the Prius just set a lap record around the Nordschleife. But it wasn't for the lap time. In fact, miles per hour barely factored in (except for staying above the minimum 37-mph average speed mandated on the vaunted racing circuit). No, this was about miles per gallon.
Toyota took one of its Prius Plug-In hybrids to the Nürburgring, topped up the battery, put on a set of low-rolling-resistance tires and put automotive journalist Joe Clifford behind the wheel with a mandate to use as little fuel as possible. After one second shy of 21 minutes, the Prius completed its lap having used just five tablespoons of fuel.