Tag Archives: Toyota

News

When Your Toyota Talks to Your Insurance Company

You know your car has cupholders, a reversing camera, enough driver-assist chimes to soundtrack a low-budget sci-fi flick, and at least one fossilized French fry wedged permanently between the seat and center console. What you might not realize is that it also has a second job—one that doesn’t show up on the Monroney sticker. Your car may be moonlighting as a data broker.

Welcome to the era of the rolling server rack.

Industry estimates suggest that roughly 90 percent of new vehicles vacuum up detailed driving data: speed, throttle inputs, braking force, cornering loads. In other words, all the fun stuff. Automakers say this telemetry helps improve safety systems, diagnose mechanical issues, and refine performance. And to be fair, modern cars are astonishingly capable computers on wheels. Over-the-air updates fix bugs. Crash-avoidance systems get smarter. Engines squeeze more efficiency from every drop of fuel.

But somewhere between your spirited on-ramp merge and your panic stop at a stale yellow, that same data may be heading somewhere else—like your insurance company.

One driver discovered this the hard way. After braking hard the day before shopping for a new policy, he was stunned when an insurer referenced that exact event during the quote process. The source, he was told, was his own car’s built-in telemetry system.

Philip Siefke told CNN that the insurer in question was Progressive. When he pressed for answers, he says he was told the data came from his Toyota’s connected services. His reaction was less “wow, cutting-edge tech!” and more “how exactly did you get that?” According to his account, he hadn’t knowingly enrolled in any monitoring program. The explanation he received: most customers effectively consent through the paperwork signed at purchase.

And there’s the rub.

Modern car-buying already feels like signing a mortgage in a wind tunnel. Between financing documents, extended warranty pitches, and the standard stack of contracts, buried clauses about data sharing are easy to miss. Technically, the permission may be there. Practically, few buyers are parsing legal language about third-party data partners while negotiating APR.

Some manufacturers share or sell anonymized—or not-so-anonymized—driving data to third parties, including insurers. The pitch is that usage-based insurance can reward safe driving. In theory, smoother inputs mean lower premiums. In reality, one heavy-footed afternoon can follow you around like a permanent demerit badge.

Regulators have started paying attention. In 2024, the Federal Trade Commission warned consumers that connected cars can collect sensitive personal data and that its use and disclosure could threaten privacy and financial well-being. Not long after, the FTC resolved a case involving General Motors and its OnStar connected services, barring the company from selling driving data to third parties for five years without clear notice and affirmative consent. There was no fine attached, but the message was unmistakable: clean up the consent process.

GM said it had already stopped the practice earlier in response to customer feedback and maintained that the original goal was to encourage safer driving. Still, the action highlighted just how opaque these data ecosystems can be.

Meanwhile, the real-world consequences show up in the one place drivers always feel it—the wallet. The Toyota driver who discovered his braking event in an insurer’s database reportedly saw his premium jump sharply at renewal despite a long clean record. What began as a sub-$300 monthly policy climbed north of $400 six months later. His lawsuit against the automaker, insurer, and a data provider is now headed to arbitration—another clause tucked neatly into that original stack of purchase documents.

Toyota has said it only shares driving data with third parties when customers provide consent and direct the company to do so. Insurers, for their part, often promote usage-based models as voluntary and beneficial. Industry groups insist connected cars aren’t spying—they’re optimizing.

But from the driver’s seat, it can feel less like optimization and more like surveillance with a deductible.

We’ve spent decades obsessing over horsepower, lateral grip, and 0–60 times. Now there’s a new performance metric to consider: how smoothly you brake in front of an algorithm. Press the start button, and you’re not just firing up fuel injection and infotainment—you may be launching a quiet livestream of your right foot’s greatest hits.

The connected car revolution promised convenience, safety, and smarter machines. It delivered all of that. It also delivered a new reality: every apex clipped and every panic stop might be logged, scored, and priced.

So the next time you mash the brake pedal to avoid a shopping cart in the Costco lot, remember—your ABS isn’t the only thing paying attention.

Source: CNN

NEW CARS

Toyota Highlander BEV For North America

Toyota has finally plugged one of its most important nameplates into the wall. The Japanese automaker announced that a battery-electric version of the Highlander will join its North American lineup in late 2026, marking a major step in its famously cautious but increasingly serious push toward electrification. And in a move that should resonate just as loudly in Frankfort as it does in Fremont, the electric Highlander will be built in Kentucky, not shipped across the Pacific.

For a company that made hybrids mainstream long before EVs became fashionable, Toyota’s “multi-pathway” strategy has often looked like a polite way of hedging its bets. But adding a fully electric, three-row SUV to the heart of its family-hauler portfolio sends a clear signal: Toyota is done tiptoeing.

An EV for America’s favorite Toyota SUV

Since arriving in the U.S. in 2001, the Highlander has become one of Toyota’s most dependable breadwinners, racking up more than 3.6 million sales thanks to its mix of space, comfort, and just-enough ruggedness. Turning it into an EV isn’t about chasing tech-bro cool points—it’s about keeping suburban driveways Toyota-shaped in an era when electrons are replacing gasoline.

Toyota debuted the electric Highlander in Ojai, California, but its future is firmly rooted in the Bluegrass State. Production will happen at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, making it the fourth EV in Toyota’s U.S. lineup after the bZ, C-HR, and bZ Woodland. Translation: this isn’t a compliance car—it’s a volume play.

Big battery, big SUV, real range

Toyota isn’t messing around with half-hearted electrification here. The Highlander BEV will offer two lithium-ion battery sizes:

  • 76.96 kWh, aimed at everyday urban driving
  • 95.82 kWh, designed for long-distance cruising and outdoor escapes

Buyers will be able to pair either battery with front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, giving the electric Highlander a surprisingly broad menu of configurations.

The headline figure is the 95.82-kWh AWD model, which Toyota says is targeting up to 320 miles of range. That’s firmly in Tesla Model Y Long Range territory, and it puts the Highlander BEV in striking distance of America’s best-selling EVs—only this one has three rows and room for a soccer team’s worth of gear.

Smaller-battery versions still look competitive, with development targets of 287 miles (FWD) and 270 miles (AWD).

Cold-weather charging, finally taken seriously

Toyota is also addressing one of EV ownership’s biggest real-world pain points: winter charging. The Highlander BEV will include battery preconditioning, keeping the pack at an optimal temperature so fast-charging doesn’t crawl when it’s freezing outside.

The target? Roughly 30 minutes to a rapid charge even in cold conditions. For families road-tripping through snowy states, that’s the difference between a coffee break and a multi-hour ordeal.

Same Highlander, new powertrain

Dimensionally, the electric Highlander sticks close to the gas-powered formula that made it a hit:

  • Length: 198.8 inches
  • Width: 78.3 inches
  • Height: 67.3 inches
  • Wheelbase: 120.1 inches

In other words, this is still very much a full-size, three-row family machine—just without tailpipe emissions and with a lot more torque lurking under the floor.

Toyota finally leans in

Toyota will continue to sell hybrids, plug-ins, and even hydrogen vehicles, but the electric Highlander feels like a turning point. It’s not a niche crossover or a futuristic experiment—it’s one of Toyota’s core products, electrified.

For families who want to go green without downsizing, and for Toyota loyalists who’ve been waiting for a serious EV from the brand they trust, the Highlander BEV might be the most important Toyota launch of the decade.

Late 2026 can’t come soon enough.

Source: Toyota

News

Toyota Century Coupe Could Revive the V-12

Toyota has never been a company that chases headlines for the sake of it. But the Century Coupe—first seen as a blazing-orange concept and now reportedly headed for production—looks like a deliberate attempt to do something un-Toyota: shock the luxury world awake. And if the latest whispers out of Japan are true, it might do so with the most outrageous powertrain Toyota has ever put into a road car.

Forget the sensible 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 that underpins the GR GT. The Century Coupe is rumored to arrive with a twin-turbo 6.0-liter V-12 paired with plug-in-hybrid assistance, good for more than 800 horsepower. Yes, a Toyota with a V-12 in the 2020s. That sentence alone feels like it was smuggled in from an alternate timeline.

For a brand that just spun the Century nameplate into a standalone ultra-luxury marque, the move actually makes a twisted kind of sense. Century isn’t Lexus-plus. It’s Toyota’s answer to Rolls-Royce: understated, obsessively engineered, and designed to be bought by people who never talk about what they drive. A twelve-cylinder halo car is exactly the kind of statement that tells the world this isn’t just another fancy Camry.

A V-12, but Whose?

What’s still a mystery is where this V-12 would come from. Toyota hasn’t built one since the Century sedan quietly retired its own in-house twelve-cylinder in favor of a hybrid V-8 in 2018. That old engine made a modest 425 horsepower—not exactly the stuff of hypercar legend.

One theory floating around Japanese outlet Mag X is that Toyota could Frankenstein together two of BMW’s turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-sixes—the same basic architecture used in the outgoing Supra. On paper, that gets you a neat, modern 6.0-liter V-12 without starting from scratch. In reality, it sounds like a branding nightmare. Century is supposed to be Toyota’s purest expression of itself, not a luxury coupe with Bavarian DNA hiding under the hood.

More likely, Toyota will do what it always does at the top of its game: quietly spend a fortune developing something bespoke, over-engineered, and built to last far longer than anyone expects.

Luxury With a Launch Control

To keep all that power from going up in smoke, the Century Coupe is expected to come standard with Toyota’s E-Four all-wheel-drive system. Gearbox choices are rumored to include either an eight-speed or a ten-speed automatic—both very Toyota solutions, focused less on drama and more on smooth, unflappable torque delivery.

The production car should stay visually close to the concept, though some of the weirder elements are likely to disappear. Those chunky black wheel arches and the SUV-like ride height felt more like a design team flex than a coherent statement. Expect something sleeker, lower, and more fitting for a six-figure grand tourer.

Inside, things should become more conventional, too. The concept’s two-seat layout—with the lone rear passenger riding behind the front passenger in chauffeur-spec comfort—was amusing but wildly impractical. A proper four-seat layout makes far more sense, especially if Toyota wants this thing to actually get driven.

Bentley Money, Toyota Promises

The price? Start mentally north of $200,000 and work your way up. Reports suggest Japanese pricing between 30 and 70 million yen, which puts the Century Coupe squarely in Bentley Continental GT and Rolls-Royce Wraith territory.

That’s bold, but Toyota isn’t trying to out-plush Bentley. Its pitch is different: combine that level of exclusivity and performance with something those brands don’t usually brag about—bulletproof reliability. If Toyota really can build an 800-plus-horsepower hybrid V-12 coupe that doesn’t need a specialist on speed dial, that could be the Century’s real party trick.

The production Century Coupe is expected to arrive in 2027, timed to celebrate the model’s 60th anniversary and the full launch of Century as its own brand. And while nothing is official, it’s hard to imagine Toyota spending this kind of money just to keep it a Japan-only curiosity.

If it does come to North America, the Century Coupe won’t just be another ultra-luxury import. It’ll be a philosophical grenade lobbed into a segment dominated by European excess: a quiet, terrifyingly powerful reminder that Toyota, when it wants to, can build absolutely anything.

Source: Toyota