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1. Ten years of the Toyota Prius - now it comes in cake form
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2. GM trying to cut factory energy bills
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3. The end of particullates in Europe?
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4. Go with Danny on a quick test drive of the Kewet Buddy in the UK
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5. LG Chem gets exclusive contract to supply LiIon batteries to Hyundai/Kia
Ten years of the Toyota Prius - now it comes in cake form
Sebastian Blanco - prius
Filed under: Hybrid, Toyota, Green Daily
Remember the wonderful 10th anniversary Prius commercial featuring Astro Boy? While Japan got to celebrate the first decade of the iconic hybrid with animated characters, there are other ways to enjoy the party. Like a Prius cake (above). I'm not sure which group Toyota UK is highlighting with the batch of three images to note the anniversary (customers, perhaps?), but I'm certainly a fan of that cake. If you click on the image to enlarge it, you can really see the detail in the decorations. Nice, at least if that is cake as I suspect.
If you've like to see the details of the Prius' first decade, Toyota has thoughtfully provided some of them in a press release. It's after the jump. The two galleries below are, first, Toyota's images that accompany the release and, second, some imaginative visions of the Prius of the future.
Gallery: Tenth Anniversary Toyota Prius
Gallery: Torino's Prius of the Future
[Source: Toyota]
TOYOTA PRIUS: 10 YEARS AT THE TOP
Prius celebrates its 10th anniversary this month and a decade during which it has pushed the boundaries of automotive innovation and set benchmarks in low emissions and fuel economy that Toyota's rivals are still struggling to match.
Even though Prius has pioneered many new technologies, most notably its Toyota Hybrid System (THS) powertrain, it has proved enormously popular with motorists, thanks to its environmental credentials, versatility, ease of use and low running costs. It remains the world's cleanest family car, with carbon dioxide emissions of 104g/km, and has an official combined cycle fuel consumption figure of 65.7mpg.
Since the first generation model made its debut in Japan in 1997, around 900,000 Prius have been sold - more than 81,000 of these in Europe, where the car was launched in November 2000. The launch of an all-new Prius in 2004 raised public awareness and accelerated sales to the extent Toyota commissioned a new production centre in Changchun, China to cope with demand.
The UK remains an important market for Prius, with more than 16,000 first and second generation versions sold. Its public profile has been boosted by exemption from the London congestion charge and lower parking permit charges in some local authority areas, thanks to its low emissions performance. And Prius drivers are happier with their vehicle than owners of any other car, according to the 2007 J.D. Power and Associates UK Customer Satisfaction Survey, which named Prius the top-ranked individual model.
Unsurprisingly, Prius is the world's best-selling hybrid power vehicle and a standard bearer for Toyota's commitment to building cars that have a less harmful impact on the environment, from the manufacturing process, through customer ownership to final end-of-life disposal. Its revolutionary power system, which combines a small but powerful electric motor, a 1.5-litre petrol engine and a compact battery pack is reliable and robust, qualities reflected in the standard eight-year warranty on all the car's hybrid components.
And where Prius has led, others have followed: Toyota Motor Corporation has steadily expanded its hybrid model range to include SUVs, MPVs and luxury saloons in both its Toyota and Lexus ranges. Meanwhile other manufacturers are only just beginning to schedule their first hybrid volume production vehicles.
Prius achievements year by year
1997 | The first generation Prius is launched in Japan on 15 December. |
| 1999 | Prius wins its first International Engine of the Year award, a feat repeated in 2000. |
| 2000 | Prius goes on sale in the UK for the first time. |
| 2002 | Prius becomes the world's first hybrid vehicle to finish an FIA-sanctioned rally, completing the 8,000km Midnight Sun to Red Sea event. |
| 2004 | The all-new second generation Prius is launched worldwide and is named 2005 European Car of the Year. It also wins the North American Car of the Year and International Engine of the Year titles and goes on to win IEoTY awards every year up to and including 2007. In Euro NCAP crash testing, Prius is awarded the top five-star rating for adult passenger protection and four stars for child occupant protection with the highest points score then recorded. In November cumulative Prius sales pass a quarter of a million. In December Prius sets a new land speed record for hybrid power vehicles, achieving 130.794mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. |
| 2005 | A new production centre in Changchun, China, comes on stream at the end of the year to meet increased market demand for Prius. |
| 2006 | In June worldwide Prius sales reach the half million mark. |
| 2007 | Prius is the top-rated individual model in the 2007 J.D. Power and Associates UK Customer Satisfaction Awards. Toyota joins with energy firm EDF to evaluate the potential of plug-in hybrid vehicles, using Prius as a prototype in France. |
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GM trying to cut factory energy bills
Sam Abuelsamid - heating-bills
Filed under: Etc., Manufacturing/Plants, GM
Everyone who lives in parts of the country that actually experience winter is familiar with the joys of paying the heating bill in those cold weather months. If it's no fun paying the utility bills for your house, imagine what it's like trying to heat a one-million sq.ft. factory. In an effort to cut utility costs, GM is asking their employees to do all the same things that people to at home such as turning off lights and computers, report and fix leaky windows and turn the thermostat down a notch. GM's North American operations include over sixty factories and and they use 70 gigawatt hours of energy annually. [Source: Detroit News]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
The end of particullates in Europe?
Xavier Navarro - diesel-particullates
Filed under: Diesel, Legislation and Policy, European Union
Finally the European Parliament has passed a new directive, called "Air quality," which creates a plan to improve the air Europeans breathe. The plan is a very promising piece of legislation, albeit complex: it has gathered four previous directives into a single bit of legislation.
Basically, the directive defines maximum pollution levels and a timeframe for its implementation. Which type of pollutants? A lot of them, but the focus has been set on microparticullates PM 2.5, which are considered dangerous for human health as they cause respiratory problems. However, these particullates don't come only from diesel vehicles tailpipes. Phenomena such as volcanic eruptions can release a huge amount of them into the atmosphere.
The directive's dates are as follows:
- 2010: a recommended value of 25 µg/m³ of PM 2.5 particulles.
- 2015: for this level to be mandatory and a recommended value for 2020 of 20 µg/m³ of PM 2.5 in the air. These levels can only be surpassed 35 times per year, which is something very hard to meet for industrial regions such as the north of Italy.
[Source: Legislation via Moteur Nature]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
Go with Danny on a quick test drive of the Kewet Buddy in the UK
Sebastian Blanco - buddy-ev
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Green Daily, UK
Right at the beginning of AutoblogGreen, we discovered that Danny Fleet was one of the most vocal proponents of electric cars over in the UK. His website, Danny's Contentment, describes driving EVs through London streets and other realities of life using the small all-electric vehicles that are currently available. Danny recently took a look at the Kewet Buddy EV, a Norwegian electric car that might be making it's way onto British soil. Danny shot some footage of the Buddy for his vlog, and wanted to invite AutoblogGreen readers along for a ride through the streets. He likes the car, and feels that all the space above his head is "surreal" for a small EV.
You can watch the video here and see high-resolution images of the Kewet Buddy in the gallery below.
Gallery: Kewet Buddy EV
Related:
[Source: Danny's Contentment]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
LG Chem gets exclusive contract to supply LiIon batteries to...
Sam Abuelsamid - hyundai-kia-hybrid-battery-contract
Filed under: Hybrid, Hyundai, Kia
South Korea's LG Chem has just scored a second big contract for their automotive lithium ion batteries. Earlier this year, the company, along with U.S. subsidiary Compact Power Inc., were one of two groups awarded development contracts from General Motors for the Chevrolet Volt program. The new contract comes from Hyundai for use in hybrid-electric vehicles starting in 2009. The batteries will be used in hybrids under both the Hyundai and Kia brands. [Source: Korea Times]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
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