Toyota eyes green future in Woodstock plant

WOODSTOCK — The first Toyota electric vehicle to be built outside of Japan could roll off the production line in Woodstock sometime in 2012.

Toyota executives joined with provincial and federal officials on Friday to make the official announcement to build the RAV4 EV electric vehicle at the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc. plant in Woodstock.

It will be a full plug-in electric SUV, not a hybrid, powered by the electric powertrain components supplied by partner Tesla Motors Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif.

Telsa, a maker of Roadster sports cars, recently signed a $100-million three-year agreement to supply Toyota with the equipment.

Toyota is expecting the RAV4 electric vehicle will go at least 160 kilometres on a single charge. But the company has not yet revealed what this vehicle would cost consumers or any specifics in terms of the number electric vehicles to be produced or how many jobs it will generate.

At first, it will be produced on the existing RAV4 line, in “limited” numbers. But if there is market acceptance and demand grows, Toyota will meet that demand, said Brian Krinock, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada.

The investment in the electric vehicle is one part of the more than $500 million worth of investments that Toyota is making at the plants in Cambridge and Woodstock, including contributions of a repayable loan of $70.84 million from the federal government and a grant of up to $70.8 million from the province.

Toyota officials said the company, which is celebrating its 25th year of production in this region, is now positioning itself for the long-term electric car future. That will help to secure the 6,500 jobs at the plants in Cambridge and Woodstock, they said.

“We are not disclosing the number of jobs, but what we are doing is ensuring the future success of the automotive sector in Canada,” Krinock said.

The Woodstock plant is currently functioning at only 25 per cent of capacity because of supply chain problems that followed the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, but the company expects it to be back at full production in September.

Ray Tanguay, chair of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, said since the Woodstock plant is producing the gasoline-powered RAV4, it is natural to produce the electric version there.

The company wants to make sure the vehicle is “of the highest quality,” Tanguay said. “If it were built in a separate assembly plant that has no experience with building the RAV, I think it would be much higher risk, so this just makes good common sense.”

The recent federal and provincial government financial support also helped to attract the Toyota investment, he added.

Federal Industry Minister Christian Paradis said although the initial production will be limited, this will advance the innovation in electric vehicles.

The federal and provincial governments will each provide Toyota with $70.8 million for its Green Light Project, an environmental and efficiency upgrade for its two Southwestern Ontario plants, meaning government funding will exceed $140 million for the manufacturing giant.

McGuinty said the goal is to have one in 20 vehicles on the road electric-powered by 2020.

The goal met with some skepticism from reporters because of the financial burden involved with buying renewable technology-based vehicles.

But McGuinty said the province must be a leader, that technology will become better, and more affordable.

“We’re going to get there. We’re going to find a way to get there. It takes eight minutes for the sun’s ray to hit the earth. Today we will receive enough sunlight to power the planet for a year. We’re going to get there,” he said.

The price of the new RAV4 EV isn’t yet known. But the province is offering incentives to buyers willing to try out the new technology. Between $5,000 and $8,500 will be knocked off the price of electric vehicles bought or leased after July 1, 2010.

Toyota officials said the investment in the project will help protect the 6,500 existing jobs at Toyota’s Cambridge and Woodstock plants, and thousands of supplier jobs throughout Ontario.

Production at the plant is expected to resume to full levels in September. Since a tsunami and earthquake hit Japan, production has been cut back to one shift, three days a week.

Toyota reveals redone 2012 Yaris at Lollapalooza 2011

Japanese automaker is getting ready to introduce its 2012 Scion iQ “Premium Micro-Subcompact,” billed as “the world's smallest four-seater.”

The iQ, just 10 feet long, goes on sale on the West Coast in October, then in Texas and the rest of the country beginning early next year.

Prices will start at $15,265 (plus $730 freight), and the tiny car comes with a 94-horsepower, 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine, paired with a continuously variable automatic transmission.

It will have a combined city/highway EPA fuel-economy rating of 37 mpg, which won't make it the most fuel-efficient car on the market, but it will be competitive.

There are cars with much more interior space that have similar fuel economy, however — even some compacts, such as the new Chevrolet Cruze.

The iQ is just a bit longer than the Smart ForTwo, which is 8.8 feet long. But the iQ seats four, while the Smart, which has been slow to catch on with U.S. consumers since its introduction four years ago, has room for only two.

Smart, a brand of Germany's Mercedes-Benz, originally had planned to introduce a ForFour model in the United States, which would have been about the same size as the iQ. But plans for that model were scrapped, and all we've seen is the smaller model, which hasn't been much more than a cute curiosity on U.S. streets so far.

There are plans to expand the Smart lineup here to include a four-passenger model, but Toyota is beating Mercedes to the marketplace with the iQ. The ForTwo uses a 1.0-liter three-cylinder engine with 70 horsepower; it's assumed that a four-seater would have an engine more in line with that of the iQ.

The ForTwo has EPA ratings of 33 mpg city/41 highway, or 36 mpg combined. It's also available in very limited quantities in an electric version.

Fortunately, Cars.com editor Joe Bruzek is attending Lollapalooza and filed this full report, including photos and information from spec sheets being handed out to interested concert-goers.

According to the sheet, for the LE model on display, the new Yaris has a 1.5-liter four-cylinder like the current model. It says 2012 mileage ratings with automatic are expected to be 30 mpg city, 35 highway -- up from the 2011's 29/35 mpg. The manual will get 30/38 vs. 2011's 29/36 mpg.

The four-door hatch on display also comes with air conditioning, tilt steering wheel with audio controls, power windows with auto-down on the driver's side, CD stereo with USB input and iPod capability, Bluetooth phone connectivity and audio streaming, 15-inch steel wheels and nine airbags. There will be a base L trim level, LE and top of the line SE.

Bruzek noted that the proportions of the car seem a little "off": The dominant front end seems to overwhelm an otherwise very small car. Bruzek also approved of Toyota getting rid of the current Yaris' center-mounted gauge cluster. It's now in front of the steering wheel. Bruzek thought the design is much more interesting than the previous Yaris and is more Scion-like. The interior materials are softer to the touch he says and a big improvement.

The Yaris is due on sale in September of October. We'll have much more information on pricing, trim levels and equipment after the official press preview later this month.