Merely 600 of the Prius plug-in have been developed.  And in spite of Toyota’s latest recall problems there is no cause for fear of safety. Rouse stated that, “Toyota is going to great lengths to ensure and make sure that our customers understand that our vehicles are very, very safe.”

It is assumed that the Toyota hybrid plug-in can go approximately 13 to 15 miles on a single charge. The ultimate price of the hybrid plug-in will be decided only after the test. If Toyota decides to put the plug-in on the market, the earliest would be in 2012.

The Tata Indicruz has the 32-bit 2.2-litre 16 valve DICOR engine. The engine has 2 versions. One which develops 140bhp and the other develops 120bhp. The Indicruz will be powered by 140bhp.

The Tata Indicruz will be a fashionable MUV, which will boast of similar features of a MUV. It will be spacious like most of the Tata vehicles.

The grille of the facade and the head light blend is to some extent like the Indica Vista with the headlamp pointing upwards at the end.

Brawn GP, Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, Toyota, BMW-Sauber, Red Bull and Toro Rosso are the 8 teams which have threatened a separate team setup and have made clear their intentions to separate from F1 over the issue of Max Mosley’s 40m budget cap proposals. To cut short the ‘financial arms race’ the budget limit was created by the world motor sport boss.

Max Mosley reacted to the teams’ menace yesterday by extending grants, but was firm with his verdict to bring in the contentious budget caps.

The governing body of sports has set a deadline of 19 June for 5 teams that is Brawn, BMW-Sauber, McLaren, Renault and

Toyota for them to authenticate whether or not they will participate in the 2010 F1 season. If it is not so then they may be excluded.

The Cygnet will get a 1.0- and 1.33-litre engine which means that the firms’ super cars could have low-polluting sub 100g/km CO2 bidding.

Ulrich Bez the boss of Aston has explained this fundamental different approach as: “Now is the right time for Aston Martin to take this first bold step to embark on this special project. This concept – akin to an exclusive tender to a luxury yacht – will allow us to apply Aston Martin design language, craftsmanship and brand values to a completely new segment of the market.”

With regard to price the firm has not yet revealed anything so far but hearsays are that Aston Martin will charge as much as £20,000.

This filing of bankruptcy in order to render an extra taxpayer fund of $30 billion is an enormous speculation for the Obama administration. This was done in order to bring in some restructuring for the automaker.

The immediate allegation is that GM will get smaller and thus reducing its market share to a lesser competitive structure. This will give an opportunity for rivals like Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai to take advantage of the situation and rise up and affix their stamp in the auto industry.

The Range-Extended Hybrid Electric Vehicle (REHEV) development team is the ones who conducted the survey. They were able to get their data from Ricardo and Jaguar-Land Rover.

The team has proposed that some minor local upgrading to the electricity supply infrastructure may have to be carried out. But as such the national system is sufficient for the short and medium term.
The REHEV team is presently functioning on a standard, flexible policy for an electric and diesel-electric vehicle.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=suAXsyqPXm8

The new Prius has a bigger 1.8-litre, 98bhp engine and a total power output of 134bhp. The engine is more proficient than the current 1.6, and also predicts a faster 0-60mph acceleration time of 9.8 seconds.

It has a 3-mode driver-selection system: EV-Drive Mode, giving electric-only propulsion for up to a mile at low speeds, sporty Power Mode and a fuel-careful Eco Mode.
New boasts on offer include a solar moon roof, with solar panels which collect energy to power the ventilation system.

There’s also a remote air conditioning system, parking assistance, LED low-beam headlamps and tail-lights, dynamic cruise control, Toyota’s pre-crash safety system, lane departure warning, a rear-view camera, voice-activated satellite navigation and automatic announcement of disaster services in the event of a smash, an SOS call button and stolen vehicle tracking.
The Mk3 Prius will be on sale this spring; pricing and specification for the UK will be declared nearer to launch.

Though the 51,093 cars sold were less when compared to the Commodore’s peak sales figure of ten years ago 94,642, it was still ahead of the next contender, the Toyota Corolla.
Sales were promoted by the addition of the Sport wagon estate to the array and discounts offered to the tune of $10,000 towards the end of the year.

Toyota, having its manufacturing facilities in Australia, was the best-selling brand by a wide margin. It sold nearly 239,000 vehicles, whereas Holden sold less than 130,500. Ford sold 104,715.

New car sales went down by just 3.6% on 2007′s results, with 1,012,164 vehicles sold. Fiat, Maserati, Ferrari, Volkswagen, Audi and Citroen all recorded large rises.

In Britain, the best-selling car is the Ford Focus and in the US it’s the F-150 pick-up truck.

Toyota has frozen the opening of its new factory in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Though the building work on this all-new facility is said to be virtually complete, the onset of car production has been indefinitely shelved.

The $300 million Tupelo plant was to make the new-generation Prius hybrid for the North American market, supplementing Prius production in Japan.
Production equipment has not yet been installed and Toyota has not confirmed when production will begin. No employees already hired are to be laid off as yet.

Toyota has 7 other factories in North America and has cut down on output at these facilities as its sales have slowed. Its sales are 13.4% down this year, though this decline is less severe than the American average.

Launch of the Mk3 Prius is still scheduled for the Detroit Motor Show next month.