Toyota and Lexus sales to fleet and business customers enjoyed a healthy 15 per cent increase this year, with the low tax and running cost benefits of hybrid power in particular proving highly attractive. Hybrid’s share of Toyota and Lexus’s fleet business increased to 30 per cent.
BTCC racer Frank Wrathall dropped in at the factory yesterday to meet the people who helped create his Toyota Avensis touring car, and to help celebrate 20 years of production at Toyota’s Burnaston facility.
Toyota sales soared by 18.6 per cent in September, the rush for new 62-plate cars helping the company increase its share of the UK market to 4.25 per cent. Top performer among the Toyota models was the new Yaris, the supermini posting an exceptional 73 per cent increase in sales – including the new Yaris Hybrid – compared to the same month last year.
Toyota was named the world’s most valuable automotive brand for the ninth year running in the recently published Best Global Brands report 2012, compiled by Interbrand. This year’s report sees Toyota’s brand valuation improve by 9% to over $30 million. The brand secured 10th position across all industries, an improvement of one place over 2010.
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The new Verso, unveiled at the 2012 Paris motor show, showcases Toyota’s European design and engineering capabilities. It joins the new Auris and Auris Touring Sports as the third element in the company’s renewed product offensive in the compact/family car market – the C-segment.
New Auris is Toyota’s first step in its new product offensive in the European compact/family car market (C-segment), a model that has stronger styling, better dynamic performance, higher equipment levels and lower running costs than its predecessor.
No motor-sporting debut is easy but this weekend’s first outing for the reformed Team Toyota GB and its all-new Toyota GT86 production racer will be one of the hardest – straight in at the deep end in the UK’s toughest race, the Britcar 24 Hours at Silverstone, which gets under way on Saturday afternoon.
Toyota Racing led from start to finish to claim the team’s first victory in just its third race, the fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Toyota follows up the UK launch of Yaris Trend with an unveiling for the 2013 special edition model that will go on sale next year.
National Grid, one of the world’s largest energy companies, has chosen the Toyota Yaris as the preferred car for its UK trainee engineers, taking delivery of 100 vehicles.
Toyota will use the Paris motor show to take the wraps off a comprehensively renewed range of models for the European family/compact car market with the world-first presentation of the new Auris hatchback, Auris Tourer and Verso people carrier.
Double British Touring Car Champion Chris Hodgetts is to return to competition and to Team Toyota GB next month when he teams up with his son, Stefan, to give the Toyota GT86 its British racing debut.
Lexus continues to set the standards for other brands to aspire to, with an emphatic first place in this year’s Auto Express Driver Power customer satisfaction survey. It maintains the leadership it has held every year since the survey was first carried out in 2002.
Toyota is famous for its involvement in global motorsport, but did you know it’s a major supporter of athletics, too?
Fresh from success at Snetterton, where he claimed his best results of the BTCC season so far, Avensis racer Frank Wrathall leads Toyota’s independent drivers north of the border this weekend (25/26 August). Joining Dynojet Racing man Wrathall on the grid for the Knockhill rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship will be fan favourite Paul O’Neill and his Speedworks Motorsport team-mate Adam Morgan.
Toyota Racing’s TS030 HYBRID makes its UK racing debut in the WECSix Hours of Silverstone this weekend, ready to take Toyota hybrid power to the podium in the fourth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Toyota will unveil the new Auris at the Paris motor show in September, a car that will deliver improved dynamics, more distinctive styling and higher equipment levels, while also being cheaper to run.
Toyota is launching a multi-million pound advertising strategy for the new GT86 sports coupe. The Real Deal campaign, created by Saatchi & Saatchi London, celebrates Toyota’s return to its sports car heritage and reflects the rave reviews the GT86 has received* for its exhilarating, authentic driving experience.
Toyota’s new GT86 sport coupe has claimed its first UK motorsport victory, winning the third round of the Toyota Sprint Series at Barkston Heath on Sunday 12 August. Driven and prepared by Adrian Smith of
Toyota GB’s commitment to reducing the environmental impact of its business has been recognised with recertification to the Carbon Trust Standard, against even tougher criteria due to the additional emission sources required upon recertification.
Frank Wrathall raced his Dynojet Racing Toyota Avensis to a superb second place – equalling his best-ever BTCC result – at Snetterton this afternoon, the Lancashire man putting in a gutsy drive to chase multiple champion Jason Plato all the way to the chequered flag in the first race of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship’s Norfolk weekend.
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Toyota brings a bit of welcome styling sizzle to Britain’s bleak summer with the timely introduction of the new Yaris Edition and Yaris Trend. Adding a healthy dose of visual pizzazz to Yaris’s sharp appearance, both come with blacked-out C-pillars which, combining with darkened rear privacy glass and contrasting with Tyrol Silver or Cirrus White paintwork, create a floating roof effect.
