Last month, Toyota was pretty open about Prius shortages brought about by the scarcity of batteries. As a result, Toyota was keen on pushing the Camry hybrid to those looking for their hybrid fix amidst the oil price crunch. I do wonder how this would work since, even if they’re both hybrids, there are a lot of differences between the two.

For a refresher, the MPGs alone bear much difference. The Prius gets 46 while the Camry gets 34. As for power figures, the Prius is ever so sluggish at 76 hp and the Camry has decent power with 147 hp. The Prius is priced at $21500 and the Camry, starts at $25900.

Doing the math, the $4000 price difference and the 12 mpg might just be worthy of the 71 hp difference. It does seem that the Camry is also a viable choice for those jumping into the hybrid bandwagon and still would want that oomph when it’s time to floor the gas pedal.

Video Source: Edmunds

One of the worst things that you can do is to bump someone with your car. Garbage cans can be fair game and shame on you if you hit a tree. But people? It’s oftentimes unforgivable. Though if shit really hits the fans, pray that your car is equipped with these airbags from Toyota Gosei.

Regarding pedestrian protection, Toyota Gosei has developed two types of airbags designed to protect the unlucky pedestrian. A “hood airbag” deploys from under the front hood and is supposed to cushion adult head bumps on a fender or front pillar. The second one, is a “grill airbag” that is designed to absorb the shock to a child’s head or an adult waist.

Probably they should scramble and fit these into Toyota Priuses. Remember how people are complaining that the quiet hybrids have taken out “listen” in the “stop, look, and listen” trifecta?

Source: Tech On

Next year’s Detroit auto show will see a whole lot of new designs and concepts and Toyota is targeting the January show to be their venue to debut two all-new hybrids for next year. However, this just wouldn’t be a simple expansion of the Prius line as one of the hybrids will be a Lexus, the other, the third-generation Prius.

No word yet on when exactly Toyota will be placing these new hybrids even if clamor for purchasing these green cars are at an all-time high. No revolutionary changes in the technology (don’t expect plug-ins yet) as both are to run with nickel-metal hydride batteries though the new Prius will be a larger vehicle.

This hybrid race is also shaping up to be one tough fight as other auto makers are scrambling their development and production teams to claim a piece of this ripe market. Honda has announced that it will create four hybrid models and see them through production. Nissan is also developing its own hybrid offerings.

Source: Autoweek

Marketing spins and other drum-banging campaigns. For Toyota, no medium is too small and no field is too disjointed from its brand. One of their latest campaigns is the iflookscouldkill.com launched through a fashion show by Alexis Phifer of Ghita. Also participating was Keyshia Cole and DJ Beverly Bonds.

iflookscouldkill.com is an online interactive series about a fashionable special agent, Bianca. Needless to say, she drives a Toyota (a reason for Toyota to be in the fray). She’s not driving anything super fancy, just a good old dependable (but yes, stylish in its own right) Toyota Camry (the 2009 XLE V6 edition). To be shown will be 6 episodes of Bianca’s exploits with Episode 1 available for viewing.

Will others follow suit with this online feature-type of marketing campaign. We’ll see. But I admire Toyota’s vision for such approaches to their campaigns. They get to advertise. We get to be entertained (even if we don’t buy Camries). Everyone wins.

Source: Toyota

It’s somehow great to know how quickly auto makers are addressing issues especially if it’s their sales that are taking a beating. Yesterday, it was reported that Toyota and Ford are having real problems coping with the demand for their hybrids due to lack of battery supplies.

Now, it seems that Toyota and Ford have found a solution for the issue and it’s by shipping production overseas. Toyota will be sending production of their Camry hybrid to Thailand and Australia. Production in Australia is also partly to address the growing demand for hybrids down under. Ford is apparently also looking into tapping Australia to address their hybrid supply shortage.

As an incentive, Australia even awarded Toyota A$35 million to build hybrid cars for the local market.

Source: Reuters

Talk about WTF! Prey on people’s growing environmental awareness and lack foresight on makers and dealers alike. With gasoline prices reaching $4 a gallon, many are ditching their hulking gas-guzzling SUVs in exchange for gas-sipping hybrids. And yes, there is huge demand for hybrids.

While Toyota was just oh-so-happy about getting a million Priuses on the road, they might have to rethink things on how they’d got about selling a million more. Sales of hybrids took a hit recently and not due to market demand but because of production shortage as battery supplies are scarce. Toyota isn’t the only one hit by this as supplies for the Ford Escape Hybrid became limited as well.

Prius sales dropped a whopping 37.5% in May compare to 24,009 units sold last year. Toyota’s Camry hybrid is doing as well. The whole choke from production to sales is the fact that Toyota couldn’t make enough batteries to power the Priuses rolling out of factories. And, as an enterprising move, they held production down, to encourage buyers to purchase other models.

Tsk. Saving the world vs. making money.

Source: AutoWeek

I really get excited when news about the Toyota-Subaru RWD coupe comes up. And as fast as Internet buzz goes, we have supposed spy shots of a test mule. I know they’re really pushing for the project but I never did think that a test mule was readily in order.

With the shape of this car, it’s a bit of a stretch to think of it as a resurrection of the famed AE86/Corolla GT but if you start thinking hard, you may be able to make the connection if you take into consideration the current look of the Corolla. It does have shades of being a burlier Subaru legacy but since most of it is still under wraps, it’s pretty hard to tell.

The car still looks Frankenstein’s monster-y but so far, I think I like what I’m seeing. It would probably attract those into rice rockets. with the car having undeniable Japanese car looks but it is shaping to be a sportier and burlier car.

One thing about the Honda Civic is that it’s a quality sedan. Great for those in a budget looking for a car to ferry themselves and their family around. The improvements to the new Civic (particularly performance and fuel efficiency improvements) also makes it very attractive for potential buyers now that gas prices at the pump are ionosphere high.

For the US alone, Honda sold 53,299 Civics just in the months of May. This is in stark contrast to the previously popular SUV market that took a bitchslap in the mouth as Civic May sales threatened to break Hummer sales for the whole year in 2007 with 55,986. Hummer sales are down 60% in a 12-month cycle and will struggle to even reach 40k by the end of the year.

The Civic also outscored rivaling budget family sedan, the Toyota Corolla (52,826) and even the ever popular Toyota Camry (51,291). This trend also reflects the shift from big vehicles to smaller ones as these three four-door cars raced into the lead ahead of the traditional sales leader, the Ford F-150 (42,973).

Source: Motor Trend Blog

Britain’s Autocar magazine featured a print-only article claiming that the third-generation Toyota Prius will get more oomph. With a reputation of being a super silent slowpoke, Toyota might just give the Prius some upgrades to change this perception. While it will gain a few inches in length and width, it will also get some added displacement.

From the current 1.5L engine, the gas engine will get a bump of 0.3L, the new Prius will sport a 1.8L engine that would generate 100 hp. Decent enough to match non-hybrid Toyota models like the Matrix and Corolla. If you think that displacement will take its toll on efficiency, Toyota is gunning for a 12% improvement on efficiency.

It will be an interesting development to watch out for, especially with announcements of other car companies like Honda who will also be putting in more effort on developing hybrids in their fleets. Probably this next Prius may help secure Toyota’s spot as the king of the green hill.

Source: Autocar via Winding Road

Inside Line has been gracious to share more information about the Toyota- Subaru tie-up on the rumored replacement to a line of Toyota RWDs (one of which would be the Corolla GT/AE 86). But you have to ask about the branding impact and direction this project is taking. Will it really be a Toyota - Subaru thing?

So far, the car is shaping up to be an Impreza that would go through Toyota’s process. The platform will be Subie. The engine will be Subie. The transmission will be Subie. And don’t those gold rims scream Impreza at yoy? So why not just get a WRX STi and slap on a Toyota badge? Not that it would matter since both companies will offer their own stylings on the car.

Uhm, okay. So the Impreza is a 4WD car and this one will definitely be a RWD. A slight modification on the powertrain will be done to accomplish that. A joint effort will be put into creating a modified version of the 2.0L boxer engine for it to generate 220 hps at 6,500 rpm.

The car is slated to be debuted in 2011 and will be priced at sub-$20,000. Still, it’s a tie-up between two of my favorite automakers. I might just have to save up for one. And I have 3 years to do it.