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Toyota, Lexus to build more CUVs to meet surging demand

What was the biggest takeaway from the auto industry's 2014? Besides the fact that recalls are now a sad and mostly unremarkable part of a vehicle's life, it's that you can't be a competitive, mainstream brand in the US without a really strong line of crossovers, SUVs or pickups. We saw evidence of this as recently as Monday, when Hyundai unveiled its HCD-15 Santa Cruz Concept, and now we're seeing it again with Toyota. The company already has a comprehensive lineup of both mainstream and luxury CUVs and SUVs, although surging demand – sales were up 16 percent last year, Bloomberg reports – has led the company to increase its production tempo at the plants responsible for the RAV4 and Lexus RX. "The freeze is still in place until the end of March of 2016," Toyota's Jim Lentz told Bloomberg during this week's Detroit Auto Show, referencing the production bump at the Japanese and Canadian factories responsible for the models. "That hasn't changed. All indications are that it will lift, but right now it has not lifted." The increased sales are even spurring the brand to consider additional CUVs, including a compact that would slot in below the RAV4, Lentz told the business publication. Such a move would give Toyota a player in an increasingly competitive and important segment. In 2014 alone, mainstream brands, including Honda, Mazda, Chevrolet and Jeep, have announced brand new products destined for the compact CUV market. "We're going to have to look at how the market under RAV4 develops," Lentz told Bloomberg. "There's no question that it's going to. That's going to be the next growth spurt." Related Video:

Audi investing $30.3 billion through 2018 for product expansion

How does Audi plan to reach two million units in annual sales and pay for the 11 new models it's adding to its lineup - an expansion that may include models named SQ2, Q9 and F-Tron? By increasing its investment to 22 billion euros ($30.3 billion US) between now and 2018. That figure represents an increase of about 500 million euros over the previously planned outlay, according to a report by Automotive News, and that could be due to Audi wishing to goad the momentum that pushed it to 1.5 million annual sales two years ahead of schedule.
It's also about staving off the challenges from BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Now that BMW has been able to turn some of its attention away from its "i" series of Megacity cars, it will reportedly spend more than planned in 2014 as it continues the rollout of ten all-new vehicles and 15 new-generation vehicles through the end of next year. Mercedes, having been dropped to third in the sales race, is preparing to add 13 new cars over the next six years.
Audi's money is going into technology, into product like the next-generation TT and the Q1 and production expansions and upgrades all over the world. The expenditure represents just under a fourth of Volkswagen's 84.2 billion-euro ($115.7 US) outlay devoted to taking the number-one global automaker title away from General Motors and Toyota by 2018.

Toyota won't face recall for Corolla unintended acceleration

Toyota will not face a recall or further investigation into an alleged unintended acceleration problem in the 2006-2010 Corolla. Following months of analysis, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was unable to find a mechanical defect to cause the issue. If there had been a safety campaign to fix the vehicles, it could have affected 1.69 million cars, according to NHTSA. The incident that prompted the investigation occurred in June 2014 when a driver was pulling into a parking spot. The 2010 Corolla allegedly lurched forward under braking and hit an unoccupied Jeep, according to The Detroit News. No one was injured. The owners had the vehicle examined by a Toyota dealer, and it found no problems. They then filed a petition with NHTSA to open a deeper investigation. NHTSA took the family's Corolla and tested it for over 2,000 miles, according to The News. The agency couldn't replicate the problem and found the brakes were capable of keeping the vehicle from moving at full throttle. In their petition, the owners also submitted 143 other unique complaints of this issue in the Corolla, but the Feds found that most of these incidents were due to driver error where the gas or both pedals were accidentally pressed. After taking all of this into account, "NHTSA has concluded that further investigation of the issues raised by the petition is not warranted," the agency wrote in its report. You can read the entire, 23-page explanation for yourself in PDF format, here. INVESTIGATION Subject : Low-speed surging Date Investigation Opened: SEP 19, 2014 Date Investigation Closed: APR 29, 2015 NHTSA Action Number: DP14003 Component(s): VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL All Products Associated with this Investigation Vehicle Make Model Model Year(s) TOYOTA COROLLA 2006-2010 Details Manufacturer: Toyota Motor Corporation SUMMARY: The Agency received a petition on September 11, 2014 requesting an investigation into, "low-speed surging in the 2006-2010 Toyota Corolla [vehicles] with ETCS-i, in which the brakes fail to stop the vehicle in time to prevent a crash." NHTSA conducted a technical review of the material cited and provided by the petitioner, material Toyota submitted in response to a NHTSA formal request, interviews with complainants and manufacturer representatives, as well as the results of testing of the complaint vehicle.