Posts Tagged ‘Toyota Prius’
U.S. opens formal investigation of 2010 Prius brakes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. safety regulators opened a formal investigation on Thursday into consumer complaints about braking on 2010 Toyota Motor Corp Prius hybrids.
The Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it has received 124 complaints about momentary braking problems after motorists rolled over bumps or potholes. Four crashes were alleged by motorists to have been caused by the problems.
Toyota officials declined immediate comment. But the automaker’s engineers in Japan said they had fixed a software problem related to anti-lock brakes on the new Prius model.
Late on Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood spoke with Toyota President Akio Toyoda, who reassured him that Toyota takes “U.S. safety concerns seriously,” a Transportation Department statement said.
Toyota shares, which fell 6 percent on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, were off another 1.8 percent to $72.18 in early trading on Thursday. They closed off 35 percent in Tokyo.
Toyota’s First Hydrogen Car to Cost $50,000
Toyota has said the company is aiming for a $50,000 price point for the first hydrogen-powered car.
Toyota has cut the cost of producing fuel-cell vehicles by roughly 90 percent in the last five years and as a result, is hoping to sell its first retail hydrogen automobile for $50,000.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Toyota’s managing director for advanced autos, Yoshihiko Masuda, said that the car maker had cut production costs to about one-tenth of earlier estimates that ran as high as $1 million a car. However, Masuda said Toyota would need to reduce current expenses by about half before starting retail sales.
“Our target is, we don’t lose money with introduction of the vehicle,” Masuda said. “Production cost should be covered within the price of the vehicle.”
Expected to arrive in 2015, the first model will be a sedan with the same driving range as a car that runs on gasoline but with “some extra cost.” General Motors, Honda, Daimler AG and Hyundai have all said they too will launch hydrogen cars in 2015, though price estimates for their vehicles have not been released.