Category Archives: AkioToyoda

Report: Toyota getting a unified look

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Filed under: Budget , Europe , Japan , Design/Style Toyota Venza – Click above for high-res image gallery Word has it that Toyota is looking to put its new reputation for shaky quality and safety behind it by moving to a new corporate face. Evidently, head honcho Akio Toyoda has called for his company’s products to have a more emotional appeal as part of a new global product philosophy, and as such, we can expect all of the automaker’s models to wear a similar look across the board. According to Inside Line, the new language will be aimed squarely at making the company’s smaller offerings appear larger.

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Report: Toyota getting a unified look

Akio Toyoda apologizes to shareholders, shareholder tells him to stop crying

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Filed under: Government/Legal , Recalls , Safety , Toyota , Earnings/Financials Now there’s some sad things known to man, but ain’t too much sadder than the tears of a… CEO? Apparently, at least one Toyota shareholder has seen enough tears and weeping from the company’s not-so-fearless leader. According to a report from Reuters , one of Toyota’s shareholders requested, “Mr.

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Akio Toyoda apologizes to shareholders, shareholder tells him to stop crying

BREAKING: Toyota and Tesla to partner on EV production in California

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Filed under: Sedan , Plants/Manufacturing , Toyota , Tesla , Electric Tesla Model S – Click above for high-res image California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda held a joint press in Palo Alto, California to announce that the two companies would be collaborating on electric vehicle development and production, with Tesla will taking over the recently closed NUMMI factory in Fremont, CA to produce the Model S sedan. Toyota will invest $50 million for a private placement of Tesla common stock and the state of California will provide a sales tax abatement to Tesla for capital equipment expenditures to tool up the plant. Musk estimated that the abatement will amount to about $20 million over the next several years. According to Musk, production of the Model S will bring about 1,000 employees back to the NUMMI plant to produce about 20,000 cars a year at first, and as the facility expands – possibly to include the production of more models – it could employ up to 10,000 workers.

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BREAKING: Toyota and Tesla to partner on EV production in California

Report: Toyota exec calls F1 "elitest," vows not to return

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Filed under: Motorsports , Toyota It might seem redundant to call a racing series that bills itself as the pinnacle of motorsports “elitist” but that’s precisely what Toyota’s Senior Managing Director for motorsports, Tadashi Yamashina, said during this weekend’s 24 Hours of Nurburgring. Toyota withdrew from Formula one at the end of the 2009 season and according to Yamashina the automaker isn’t likely to ever return. According to Yamashina, Formula One has become so disconnected from mainstream fans over the past two decades that it makes no sense for the company to be involved in the sport. When Akio Toyoda took over as CEO last year he decided that Toyota’s racing activities should be in series where the average fan is more directly involved

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Report: Toyota exec calls F1 "elitest," vows not to return

LaHood visits Toyota in Japan, won’t discuss likelihood of more fines

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Filed under: Government/Legal , Recalls , Safety , Toyota Akio Toyoda, still working the shovel to extricate Toyota from the hole it’s dug, invited U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for a factory visit. When he returned, LaHood said that the Toyota CEO didn’t realize how much damage the company’s reputation was taking until Toyoda actually came to America and saw for himself. On the matter of further fines, LaHood would only say that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has yet to finish sifting through 500,000 documents concerning the unintended acceleration recall.

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LaHood visits Toyota in Japan, won’t discuss likelihood of more fines

Toyota earns $1.2B in Q1 amidst recall mess

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Filed under: Toyota , Earnings/Financials Conventional wisdom might tell you that Toyota should have lost loads of money last quarter in the wake of the company’s largest-ever global recall and safety scandal. Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us too much to hear that conventional wisdom would be all wrong. In reality, Toyota reported a profit between January and March of this year of $1.2 billion. This profit comes despite the fact that Toyota reports expenditures related to the recall mess at a little over a billion dollars (or, 100 billion yen) and surely took a monetary hit compared to previous years due to the unprecedented spate of incentives to keep sales rolling.

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Toyota earns $1.2B in Q1 amidst recall mess