Toyota Prius - Hybrid

Toyota Motor Corporation commonly known simply as Toyota and abbreviated as TMC, is a multinational automaker headquartered in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. The company was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937 as a spinoff from his father's company Toyota Industries to create automobiles. Three years earlier, in 1934, while still a department of Toyota Industries, it created its first product, the Type A engine, and, in 1936, its first passenger car, the Toyota AA. Toyota Motor Corporation group companies are Toyota (including the Scion brand), Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino Motors, along with several "nonautomotive" companies. TMC is part of the Toyota Group, one of the largest conglomerates in the world& also known for its principles & values. They believe in delivering the quality product to the customer at the same time adding value through great service. Toyota has factories in most parts of the world, manufacturing or assembling vehicles for local markets. Toyota has manufacturing or assembly plants in Japan, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Canada, Indonesia, Poland, South Africa, Turkey, Colombia, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Brazil, Portugal, and more recently, Argentina, Czech Republic, Mexico, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, Egypt, China, Vietnam, Venezuela, the Philippines, and Russia. Toyota is one of the largest companies to push hybrid vehicles in the market and the first to commercially mass-produce and sell such vehicles, an example being the Toyota Prius It labeled such technology in Toyota cars as "Hybrid Synergy Drive" and in Lexus versions as "Lexus Hybrid Drive." The Prius has become the top selling hybrid car in America. Toyota, as a brand, now has four hybrid vehicles in its lineup: the Prius, Auris, Highlander, and Camry. Worldwide sales of hybrid vehicles produced by Toyota reached 1.0 million vehicles by May 31, 2007, and the 2.0 million mark was reached by August 31, 2009, with hybrids sold in 50 countries. About 200 complaints in Japan and the US over a software glitch in its bestselling Prius petrol-electric hybrid that can cause temporary brake failure at low

speeds on bumpy or icy roads forced the company to recall almost half a million hybrid cars worldwide, including 8,500 of its Prius model in the UK. The brake defect has been responsible for four crashes in which two people were injured, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Toyota GB announced that the recall will apply to 8,500 owners of the thirdgeneration Prius in the UK. It will send individual letters to all those owners explaining details of the recalls, which will involve a 40-minute software update to the car's braking system. Toyota's Japanese headquarters informed the country's transport ministry of the recall of 223,000 hybrid cars in Japan across four models: about 200,000 of the 2010 Prius model and much smaller numbers of the Prius plug-in hybrid, "I apologize for causing trouble and worries for many customers over the quality and safety of Toyota," its embattled president, Akio Toyoda, In the US Toyota is battling to save its reputation in the face of lawsuits linked to accidents, an investigation by highway authorities. Toyota's handling of the recalls had seriously damaged its brand image. "Until the recent crisis, Toyota was the best performing and most valuable car brand in the world," said David Haigh