TOKYO, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday that its new hydrogen powered fuel-cell car had successfully completed a long-distance road test and was shown to be 25 percent more fuel efficient than earlier versions.

The FCHV vehicle was driven about 560 kilometers (350 miles) on a single fueling and finished with 30 percent of the hydrogen still in the tank, said Yoshihiko Masuda, who heads Toyota's fuel-cell car development.

TOKYO, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - Toyota Motor Corp. plans to introduce a fuel-efficient ultra-compact four-seater vehicle in Europe by around 2009 to meet rising demand for low-pollution cars, a report said Tuesday.

The vehicle will be based on the 'iQ' prototype that the Japanese automaker exhibited at this month's Frankfurt auto show, the Nikkei business newspaper said, without citing its sources.

Measuring just 2.98 metres (9.8 feet) long, the iQ is around 80 centimetres shorter than Toyota's Yaris subcompact, it said.

TOKYO, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - The Toyota Motor Corp. group plans to build a new car assembly plant in northern Japan to meet brisk demand, news reports said Friday.

Toyota is in the final stages of negotiations to build a 50 billion yen (435 million dollars) auto plant in the Tohoku region in northern Japan, the Nikkei reported in its Friday evening edition without citing any sources.

Toyota declined to confirm the report.

FRANKFURT, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) - The world's biggest automakers, GM and Toyota, have taken different paths to building cleaner cars but agree there is no one route to lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

They also agree that making the technology affordable will be a challenge.

Toyota 'is five years in front of the rest of the world' in developing hybrid technolgy that combines electric and internal combustion engines, German auto analyst Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer told AFP Tuesday.

FRANKFURT, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - Toyota is confident of retaining its leading position in hybrid cars despite growing competition, the Japanese firm's chairman said Monday ahead of the International Motor Show (IAA) here.

If the number of hybrid cars grows it will be good for the environment, Katsuaki Watanabe told a press conference three days before the 62nd IAA opened to the public.

Competition in this field is good for everyone because progress made by one automaker benefits all, he stressed.

TOKYO, Sept 9, 2007 (AFP) - While globalisation looks unstoppable in most of the world, Japan has long done business by its own rules, with few foreigners succeeding at climbing to the highest echelons of power.

Jim Press, an American who is credited with spearheading Toyota Motor Corp.'s phenomenal success in the key US market, was one of the few foreign executives who understood and assimilated into Japanese corporate culture.

And so news that Press has left fast-growing Toyota after 37 years for a job at struggling US automaker Chrysler has left many here stunned.

CHICAGO, Sept 6, 2007 (AFP) - Chrysler LLC announced Thursday that it had poached a top executive, James Press, from Japanese rival Toyota as the newly independent US automaker seeks to re-energize its operations.

Press, a veteran auto industry executive, was formerly the president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motors North America. He spent 37 years working his way up the corporate ladder at the Japanese auto giant.

TOKYO, Sept 5, 2007 (AFP) - Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. edged closer to taking the title of the world's top automaker by output after US rival General Motors reduced its production target for this year.

GM on Tuesday reduced its output forecast for North America for the third quarter of 2007 to 1.05 million vehicles, down 25,000 from its previous target, and also trimmed its projections for Asia.

The US auto giant now expects to produce 9.285 million vehicles globally this year, according to its latest forecasts.

CHICAGO, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - Toyota's US arm said Tuesday sales fell 2.8 percent in August, attributing the decline to the credit squeeze stemming from the US housing slump.

Still, the Japanese auto giant sold more vehicles in the US market than Ford -- 233,471 to 218,332 for its US rival.

'Reduced credit tied to the subprime squeeze challenged consumer confidence this month,' said Jim Lentz, Toyota Motor Sales executive vice president.

TOKYO, Aug 29, 2007 (AFP) - A parts making subsidiary of automaking giant Toyota Motor said Wednesday it will invest some 80 million dollars to build a new factory in the US state of Mississippi.

Toyota Boshoku said its planned factory, which will become operational in 2010, will hire 500 people to build seats, door panels and carpet to the Toyota Highlander sport utility vehicle plant in the same US state.

TOKYO, Aug 28, 2007 (AFP) - Japan's largest truck maker Isuzu said Tuesday it aimed for operating profits to rise 40 percent in the next four years as it focuses on overseas markets, particularly in Asia.

Isuzu Motor Ltd. set the mid-term goals despite anticipation that demand will remain sluggish in Japan, where the population is declining and demand for environment-friendly trucks is seen as having peaked.

TOKYO, Aug 27, 2007 (AFP) - Japanese truckmakers Isuzu and Hino, both affiliated with the Toyota group, said Monday they will tie up in development to meet rising global environmental standards.

They said they will work together for exhaust gas treatment systems for diesel engines as well as the cabins of heavy-duty trucks.

The firms already have a close working relationship, including a joint venture that supplies parts.

DETROIT, Michigan, Aug 18, 2007 (AFP) - Facing some intense competition for long-held spot as the world's top automaker to Japan's Toyota, General Motors' top executive reiterated late Friday the yen is still undervalued on world's currency markets.

'I think, in the next five or ten years, the bias is for the dollar to weaken and all the basic economics suggest that it should,' GM Chairman and chief Richard Wagoner told reporters during an impromptu press conference after the financial markets had closed in the United States.

TOKYO, Aug 9, 2007 (AFP) - Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. will delay by one or two years the rollout of new high-mileage hybrids with lithium-ion batteries because of safety concerns, a newspaper reported Thursday.

Toyota's decision was prompted by worries that the batteries could overheat, catch fire or even explode, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition, quoting unnamed Toyota executives.

It said such fears were heightened by problems with similar batteries made by Sony Corp. for laptop computers which prompted a massive recall last year.

TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan, Aug 8, 2007 (AFP) - A senior executive of Toyota Motor said Wednesday there was little threat of a backlash against his company even as it beats US automakers in their home market.

While there was a time when Americans considered Japanese cars a threat, 'that's kind of going by the way side,' Jim Lentz, the top American executive at Toyota Motors Sales USA, told AFP.

Ten years ago, about 40 percent of Americans said they would never buy an 'import' car, Lentz said.

TOKYO, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday fast-growing sales of fuel efficient vehicles and a weaker yen lifted its profits 32 percent to another record high in its fiscal first quarter.

But Toyota, which is racing neck-and-neck with US rival General Motors for the title of the world's top selling automaker this year, maintained its cautious outlook, predicting roughly stable annual earnings.

Toyota's net earnings came to 491.54 billion yen (4.12 billion dollars) in the three months to June, up 32.3 percent from a year earlier.

TOKYO, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday fast-growing sales of fuel efficient vehicles and a weaker yen lifted its profits up 32 percent to a record high in the fiscal first quarter.

But Toyota, which is battling US rival General Motors for the title of the world's top selling automaker, maintained its cautious outlook for the full-year, predicting roughly stable earnings.

Net earnings came to 491.54 billion yen (4.12 billion dollars) in the three months to June, up 32.3 percent from a year earlier, a company statement said.

TOKYO, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - Japanese auto giant Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday its profits soared by 32 percent to a record high in the first quarter of its business year on the back of fast-growing overseas sales and a weak yen.

Net earnings came to 491.54 billion yen (4.12 billion dollars), up 32.3 percent from a year earlier, a company statement said.

Operating profit jumped 31.8 percent to 675.43 billion yen as revenue increased by 15.7 percent to 6.52 trillion yen.

TOKYO, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. reports first quarter earnings Friday as it competes with US rival General Motors for the title of the world's top selling automaker.

Toyota has been enjoying strong sales, particularly in the United States, as sky-high prices at the pump boost demand for compact cars, small sport utility vehicles and hybrids which use a mix of electricity and petrol.

In May it became the first Japanese company ever to post a two-trillion-yen (16.8 billion dollars) annual operating profit.

DETROIT, Michigan, Aug 1, 2007 (AFP) - Toyota Motor saw US sales slip 3.5 percent in July as strong demand for its luxury line, hybrids and new pickup truck were offset by weakness in passenger cars, the Japanese automaker said Wednesday.

July sales dipped to 224,058 vehicles while year-to-date sales were up 5.5 percent at 1.56 million.

'The industry stumbled this month, on continued housing weakness,' said Jim Lentz, executive vice president of Toyota Motor Sales USA.

SAN FRANCISCO, July 27, 2007 (AFP) - Toyota announced this week a partnership with the University of California to road test two plug-in hybrid cars, a step toward getting the fuel-efficient vehicles to consumers.

The study to be launched this fall will be the first time a major automaker puts the experimental cars on US roads. UC Berkeley will analyze the behavior of the drivers, and UC Irvine will study air quality and energy use.

TOKYO, July 23, 2007 (AFP) - Japan's top automaker Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday that last week's earthquake would reduce its production by some 55,000 vehicles but it aims to make up for it by the end of the year.

Toyota Motor said it would resume some of its domestic production on Tuesday after a shutdown since Thursday caused by a shortage of parts supplied by Riken Corp. that hit the entire Japanese auto industry.

Riken restarted some of its production Monday at a plant northwest of Tokyo that was hit by the 6.8-magnitude earthquake a week earlier.

TOKYO, July 23, 2007 (AFP) - Japan's top automaker Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it will resume some of its domestic production on Tuesday as a key parts supplier re-started a plant hit by last week's earthquake.

Riken Corp., the supplier at the centre of the recent stoppages, resumed some production Monday at its factory in Niigata prefecture making auto parts such as piston rings, seal rings and camshafts, a company official said.