Tag Archives: Toyota

News

Toyota Transport: The Unsung Heroes Behind Your New Car’s First Miles

Before a shiny new Toyota GR Supra rolls off the dealer lot into the hands of its proud new owner, it’s already had a few hundred miles under its belt — courtesy of the unsung specialists of Toyota Transport.

For drivers like Tracy Tenorio, based in Benicia, California, every trip behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound hauler loaded with fresh Toyotas and Lexuses is a small celebration of passion and precision. “When I got this job, it felt like I’d won the lottery,” he says, his voice equal parts pride and gratitude. “I love cars. I love driving. It was a win-win for me.”

Tenorio’s story isn’t unique. Across the western U.S., nearly 100 full-time Toyota Transport delivery specialists keep the brand’s promise of quality alive right up until the moment a customer takes delivery. Together, they handle almost one in four Toyota and Lexus vehicles sold in the United States — a staggering portion of the company’s total volume.

Not Your Average Trucking Gig

Unlike most automakers, who outsource final vehicle delivery to third-party haulers, Toyota employs its own fleet of dedicated drivers — and replaces every truck and trailer every five years. These rigs aren’t just workhorses; they’re rolling showcases of Toyota’s obsession with reliability and safety.

Tenorio and his colleagues don’t just move metal; they carry Toyota’s reputation on their backs. Each day starts in the pre-dawn hours — sometimes as early as 1 a.m. — as drivers scan massive vehicle lots that could rival NFL stadiums in size. They inspect, load, and secure millions of dollars’ worth of inventory, ensuring not a single fender gets scuffed on the journey to dealerships.

“It’s not for everyone,” says Brian Quick, who joined Toyota Transport in 2015 after a decade hauling soda across Southern California. “We’re out in the elements, dealing with traffic, distractions, and schedules. You’re not just driving for yourself but for everyone around you. You really have to love this job to do it right.”

Precision Logistics, Toyota Style

Overseeing the choreography is Senior Manager Adam Lee Ryden, who manages Toyota’s Logistics Services team on the West Coast. “We’re an industry leader in on-time performance,” he says. “Most of what we transport is already sold, so we know there’s a customer waiting on the other end. Our mission is to deliver those cars quickly — and safely.”

That word — safely — carries a lot of weight here. Department of Transportation regulations limit Toyota’s delivery specialists to five 14-hour days a week, but most drivers cap their shifts around 10 hours. It’s a long haul by any measure, yet Toyota’s corporate mantra of respect for people keeps burnout at bay.

“Work-life balance isn’t usually a thing in auto hauling,” admits Senior Analyst Carla Melgar, “but for Toyota Transport, it’s a priority. We’ve proven that you can move vehicles efficiently and still take care of your people.”

A case in point: in 2024, Toyota launched a “go-and-see” campaign, inviting drivers to share feedback with trailer manufacturers on future hauler design. “The trailer builders were floored,” Melgar says. “They couldn’t believe we’d actually ask drivers what they wanted.”

Culture of Longevity

That culture shows in the numbers. Toyota Transport’s turnover rate is practically zero — a rarity in an industry known for grueling hours and high attrition. Once you land a spot on the team, chances are you’ll stay until retirement.

“Toyota really takes care of us,” says Quick. “The pay is great, the respect is real, and everyone wants to see the next person succeed. That’s why, when a position opens up, we get swamped with applicants. Everyone in the industry knows Toyota Transport is the place to be.”

Tenorio agrees. “We’ve got drivers celebrating 25 years with the company. I’ve been here a long time, and there are still guys ahead of me on the seniority list. You just don’t see that anywhere else.”

Driving the Brand Forward

For a company that’s built its reputation on craftsmanship and consistency, Toyota Transport might just be the most Toyota part of Toyota. These drivers are the final link in a production chain that spans continents — the last hands to touch a vehicle before it reaches its owner.

As Quick puts it: “The difference is, we’re the manufacturer, not a contractor. The culture — whether you’re at headquarters, a plant, or behind the wheel of a transporter — is the same. ‘Respect for people’ isn’t just a slogan. It’s how we operate.”

Behind every new Toyota and Lexus on the road, there’s someone like Tenorio or Quick, up before dawn, guiding half a million dollars’ worth of machinery down I-5 with the same focus and pride that built those cars in the first place. They may not get the spotlight, but without them, the wheels of Toyota’s success wouldn’t keep turning.

Source: Lexus

News

Toyota’s Hydrogen Hit Squad: The Future Has a Roar

One of the glorious contradictions of the Goodwood Festival of Speed is that while the air smells of tyre smoke and super unleaded, the future is quietly humming in the background — or in this case, hissing at -253°C. Because among the Ferraris and McLarens and ancient rally monsters, Toyota showed up with a reminder that hydrogen isn’t done fighting yet.

Yes, while the rest of the automotive world is still arguing about plug sockets and charging times, Toyota’s been playing 4D chess. It’s betting not on one path to carbon neutrality, but several. Fuel cells, hydrogen combustion, liquid storage, rally cars, race cars, pick-ups — the works. If it can burn, convert, or store hydrogen, Toyota’s probably got an engineering team elbow-deep in it.

Meet the Hydrogen Heroes

The headline act at Goodwood was the GR010 Hybrid WEC car-based GR LH2 Racing Concept — basically Toyota’s Le Mans-winning hypercar reimagined to run on liquid hydrogen. It’s an idea so gloriously mad it makes sense: take the future fuel, give it a screaming internal combustion engine, and see what happens when the stopwatch starts ticking. For now, the GR LH2 sat proudly on static display, its innards built to handle temperatures colder than an Arctic winter and combustion pressures that would make a blacksmith sweat. Track testing is coming soon.

Meanwhile, in the “actually moving” department, Toyota rolled out something a bit more down to earth — the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Hilux prototype. It’s a pickup that looks like it could still haul sheep and construction gear, but does so with three tanks of compressed hydrogen slung underneath. Ten of these have been hand-built at Toyota’s Burnaston plant in the UK, five for internal testing and five for showing off. Each tank holds 2.6kg of hydrogen (7.8kg total), giving a range of around 373 miles. Not bad for something that can still tow a trailer and doesn’t sound like an air fryer having an existential crisis.

Under the skin, the Hilux borrows brains from the Mirai saloon — Toyota’s long-running hydrogen fuel cell car. A 330-cell polymer electrolyte membrane stack sits over the front axle, feeding a 180bhp, 221lb ft electric motor on the rear axle. There’s a small lithium-ion battery tucked in the load bay to handle power surges and store regen energy. Think of it as a hybrid system with liquid ambition.

When Hydrogen Burns

But Toyota being Toyota, it didn’t stop at clean fuel cells. Oh no — it’s also been experimenting with hydrogen combustion. That’s right, proper pistons, valves, and bangs, just fuelled by the most abundant element in the universe.

It started with a Corolla Sport running a converted three-cylinder GR Yaris engine, puffing away happily on compressed hydrogen. Then came the truly mad bit — Toyota figured out how to use boil-off gas from liquid hydrogen tanks (the stuff that literally evaporates as it warms up) and feed it back into the engine instead of venting it. It’s a neat trick that makes hydrogen ICEs both greener and cleverer.

The result? The GR Yaris H2 rally car, which made its debut at Rally Finland 2022, and more recently the GR Rally2 H2 Concept, still sideways and still spectacular. Because as Toyota will remind you: the future doesn’t have to be silent — it can still sound like a turbo triple bouncing off the limiter.

So, what’s the takeaway from Toyota’s hydrogen circus at Goodwood? Simple: the brand’s not putting all its green eggs in one lithium basket. Hydrogen, in all its forms, remains very much part of the plan — powering trucks, pick-ups, rally cars, and potentially, the next generation of endurance racers.

It’s a fascinating blend of science and stubbornness — a reminder that Toyota, the company once mocked for hybridising everything, is still engineering for the long game. And while others argue about charging infrastructure, Toyota’s quietly building a future that hisses, hums, and still smells faintly of race fuel.

Because in Toyota’s world, zero emissions don’t have to mean zero excitement.

Source: Toyota

NEW CARS

Toyota FJ: The Baby Land Cruiser That’s Big on Attitude

It’s back. After years of whispers, teasers, and blurry spy shots taken through the foliage of rural Japan, Toyota has finally done it — the FJ name is reborn. Only this time, it’s not the chunky retro bruiser you remember. No, this is the baby Land Cruiser — think Defender 90-sized, but with that unmistakable Toyota sense of indestructibility baked into its DNA.

Meet the New Kid in the Cruiser Clan

The new Toyota FJ — short for Freedom and Joy, which sounds like a wellness retreat but actually describes a small 4×4 that could probably drive through one — is Toyota’s latest addition to its sprawling Land Cruiser family. Sitting below the 250 Series (the one currently sold in the UK), the FJ shrinks the formula but keeps the rugged spirit intact.

At 4,575mm long, 1,855mm wide, and 1,960mm tall, it’s within a whisker of the Land Rover Defender 90 — which is exactly the point. Toyota wants to lure a “new generation” of buyers into the Land Cruiser fold: people who want mountain-goat ability and retro charm, but in a package that fits into multi-storey car parks and modern lifestyles.

Mini Cruiser, Major Capability

Underneath, it shares its bones with the bigger 250, but with 270mm lopped out of the wheelbase. That makes it tiny by Land Cruiser standards — yet Toyota swears it’s just as capable off-road. Ground clearance and approach angles are nearly identical to the 250’s 215mm and 31 degrees, and a 5.5-metre turning circle should make light work of tight trails (or supermarket car parks).

Power comes from a humble 2.7-litre naturally aspirated four-pot pushing out 161bhp and 181lb ft — numbers that won’t make your pulse race but will, crucially, still run after the apocalypse. Drive goes to all four corners via a six-speed auto, and you can bet it’ll clamber over almost anything you point it at.

Chief branding officer Simon Humphries calls it “a minimal footprint with a new dimension in driving performance and manoeuvrability.” Translation: it’s small, scrappy, and built to go anywhere.

Designed to Get Dirty (and Look Good Doing It)

Visually, the FJ looks like someone threw a Land Cruiser and a Tonka truck into a blender — flared arches, squared-off bumpers, and a stance that screams ready for action. The modular bumpers can be removed and swapped out for custom ones, or just replaced when they inevitably meet a rock. There’s a smorgasbord of customisation options too: round headlights for retro lovers, cargo panels, even a snorkel if you plan to use it as Noah’s Ark.

Inside, it’s a refreshingly honest cabin. There’s a 12.5-inch touchscreen flanked by actual buttons — remember those? — and a tough, utilitarian layout that looks ready for muddy boots and rough roads.

Global Reach, Local Absence

The FJ will be built in Thailand and launched first in Japan mid-next year, before heading to Africa, Asia, South America, and the Middle East — the markets where Toyota’s off-roaders are practically family members.

Bad news for us in the UK: according to chief engineer Masaya Uchiyama, there are “no plans for America or Europe”. But given how quickly Toyota’s product plans evolve — and how much we love a compact off-roader with proper heritage — don’t count it out just yet.

If it does make the trip here, it’ll likely need a hybrid powertrain to keep the emissions people happy. Toyota already sells the 250 with a mild-hybrid diesel, so a small petrol-hybrid FJ wouldn’t be much of a stretch.

The Future of the Family

Toyota insists the Land Cruiser “will continue to evolve to meet societal demands while supporting the lives of customers around the world.” That’s corporate-speak for there’s more coming, and we’re here for it.

Because if this little FJ delivers on its promise — go-anywhere ability, indestructible engineering, and a whiff of old-school charm — it could be the most fun Land Cruiser in years.

Small in size, big in spirit, and named after Freedom and Joy. Sounds like the perfect antidote to a world obsessed with crossover clones.

Source: Toyota