2006 Toyota Matrix Base Wagon 4-door 1.8l on 2040-cars

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New Toyota semiconductors could increase hybrid fuel efficiency by 10%

Toyota may have an ace up its sleeve in the fuel economy wars, as it's developed a new type of semiconductor that will allegedly help the company's hybrids net a ten-percent improvement in fuel economy.
The tech is still in development, although Toyota is already reporting five-percent gains during testing, six years before it plans to implement the new semiconductor in production vehicles, meaning the ten-percent improvement doesn't seem like an untenable goal. That is, until you hear from Kimimori Hamada, the project general manager of Toyota's electronics division.
"We are aiming for great improvement in fuel economy and miniaturization," Hamada told Automotive News. "This is a very challenging target."

Daily Driver: 2015 Toyota Avalon Hybrid

Daily Driver videos are micro-reviews of vehicles in the Autoblog press fleet, featuring impressions from the staffers that drive them every day. Today's Daily Driver features the 2015 Toyota Avalon Hybrid XLE Premium, reviewed by Sebastian Blanco. You can watch the video above or read a transcript below. Watch more Autoblog videos at /videos. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT [00:00:00] Hello everyone. Welcome to another Autoblog Daily Driver. This is Sebastian Blanco coming to you from behind the wheel of a 2015 Toyota Avalon Hybrid XLE Premium. This is the silver metallic and light gray version. Comes in at $38,455. It has an Entune Premium audio setup here. It's a Toyota. It's a hybrid, which probably makes you think of a Prius. The Avalon [00:00:30] and the XLE and the Premium, what we're really dealing with here is a world's plushiest, comfiest bigger Prius. It's a very different kind of car, with the body style, but you've got a lot of similarities if you've spent any time in a Prius. The fuel economy of this Hybrid on the official scale is 40 miles per gallon combined, 40 in the city and 39 on the highway. I've driven it over 400 miles this week and my average was 34.3 miles per gallon. [00:01:00] Much lower than the numbers would suggest and there's really no excuse for that. I was driving with the cruise control on, mostly on the highway, the weather is fine. This should have been an easy 39, but maybe that's the fault of the cruise control. The sport mode in this car for me has been kind of a joke. When I was interacting with the car in a more discernible manner, I couldn't tell much difference. This isn't the kind of car that you want when you're dealing with sport mode. [00:01:30] You know what you're getting with this car. It's a little more luxurious, not quite Lexus level, but definitely the higher end for a Toyota. It's nice if you like these sort of cars. This is definitely worth a look, but it's not going to be on my shopping list anytime soon. Perhaps it is on yours. For Autoblog and AutoblogGreen, this is Sebastian Blanco for another Daily Driver.

Toyota increasing Yaris Hybrid production to 222,000 this year in France

More fuel economy means more factory workers and more production for Toyota's most popular model in Europe. That simple equation explains why the Japanese automaker is boosting annual production of its gas- and hybrid-powered Yaris compact vehicles at its French factory. The new number will be about 222,000, a 15 percent increase. To do that, Toyota will need to add about 500 workers to bring its total there to more than 4,000, UK's The Green Car Website says. Vive le Toyota! Toyota updated the European Yaris in the middle of 2011 and added a hybrid version later that year, the model has many fans across the pond. It helps that they hybrid is rated (using the friendlier European standards) at a whopping 81 miles per gallon, a tremendous number for a car that costs approximately $26,000. Toyota could soon have a bit more room in the small hybrid segment, since it was reported recently that Honda would discontinue European sales of its Insight and CR-Z hybrids soon. That decision was made easier because of increasing competition from Toyota, which boosted hybrid sales in Europe last year by 43 percent. In contrast, both the CR-Z and Insight experienced more than a 60-percent plunge in European sales in 2013.