Toyota’s Highlander and the Muppets teams ready for joyride

All- new film Muppets’’ Most Wanted’’  hits theaters on March 21, 2014.

Everybody’s favorite gang is on a mission to “unborify” Terry Crews, the actor of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Everybody Hates Chris fame in the Toyota’s new commercial for the all-new 2014 Toyota Highlander.

Toyota is teaming up with Disney to promote the launch of its redesigned Highlander mid-sized crossover, starting with a 60-second Super Bowl in a video entitled Joyride. The broadcast debut will be during Super Bowl XLVIII on Sunday, February 2.

 “Our game-day spot shows how Toyota Highlander puts the ‘fun’ in function,” said Jack Hollis, vice president of Toyota Division Marketing at Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. , Inc. “Toyota vehicles are built to last and can even endure the most boisterous Muppets, a former

NFL player as well as a center console full of chickens.”

But without giving too much away, the Muppets will use their over-the-top personalities to teach ex-NFL player and TV personality Terry Crews a thing or two about unborifying his lifestyle as they borrow his sweet and fun-ctional Toyota Highlander. The video features humorous hijinks, dancing and surprises a console full of chickens and of course, an original song.

Spacious seating for eight human passengers, or for a dozen Muppets. The new Toyota Highlander has plenty of room for everything, except for boring.

 “We’re always game for a wild ride,” said Kermit the Frog, who makes a special appearance in the campaign, “as long as Animal’s not driving. He doesn’t quite get the whole concept of brakes.”

 Crew’s who played six years in NFL as defensive end/linebacker, is known for his roles and appearances on television shows such as “The Newsroom,” “Arrested Development”  and films “The Expendables” franchise, “Bridesmaids” and “The Longest Yard.”

 “It’s truly an honor to be a part of this wild ride with Toyota and the Muppets,” said Crews.”The Toyota Highlander is the perfect vehicle to teach my character how to loosen up and have some fun. Be prepared for some laughs on game day.”

In addition to the commercial, the Muppets will be providing real-time updates as they travel to the big game in their Toyota Highlander on February 2. Fans are invited to chat live with the Muppets on game day by tweeting @Toyota or using #NoRoomForBoring.

All the activities, broadcasting the video and social media were developed in partnership with Saatchi & Saatchi LA, Conill and 360i. “Joyride” will air during the second quarter of the game. Preview of the commercial:

The film takes entire Muppets gang on a global tour where they find themselves accidentally involved in an international crime caper. Also starring Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell and Tina Fey.

 “We all grew up with Kermit and the Muppets, and that makes Toyota’s collaboration with Disney very special for us,” said Hollis. “The two brands share a focus on delighting guests, and this allows us to take them along on a fun ride.”

“We’re excited to work with Toyota for the first time,” said Don Gross, vice president, promotions The Walt Disney Studios. “The Muppets’ classic mix of high energy and heart matches perfectly with Toyota’s spirit of adventure, and Kermit, Gonzo and the whole gang look forward to many zany road trips.”

Celebration of Toyota's Calty Design Research and its 40 Year in a Rich Sports Car Design Legacy

From the very modest beginnings, Calty Design Research has become dominant automotive design center firmly influencing Toyota vehicles designs. The Toyota FT-1 concept is the completion of Calty's history with sports car design.

The Japanese automaker established the first design center in North America. Toyota’s Calty Design Research began as a bold experiment on October 2, 1973 in El Segundo, California, the state's prosperous car culture. In the beginning, the studio was considered as a primary branch of  Toyota's global vehicle design organization. Now, after 40 years, the Calty facility would play the most important role in some of the Toyota's most significant designs, and be crucial in company's movement towards regional autonomy for North American product  expansion.

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In the beginning, the mission was to serve as a laboratory for the new ideas, designs, providing an open field for materials, shape, form, exploration, etc. It's name is a combination of the words California and Toyota.

 «El Segundo wasn't campus. It was one portion of a modest building in an industrial area. There were about six designers and 25 people total in support. Menawhile, we would hear that domestic studios had 300 modelers and 100 designers. The manpower available meant Calty designers had to know more about the package and the architecture of the cars since we only had a couple of studio engineers. Early on, there was an underdog feeling at Calty which helped make working there feel like a team effort,» said Doris Kusumoto, Calty Financial Manager.

Guided by the vision of Shoichiro Toyoda, founder of Toyota Motor Corporation and Calty's first Executive Vice President, Mamoru Yaegashi, the first studio started with Noritsuna Watanable as its General Manager. Watanable's aim was to organize a design and research the foothold in the U. S.market.

 «Given the security surrounding vehicle design, we kept it as a hush-hush operation. Some locals thought we were a small manufacturing facility, or even selling t-shirts. Early on, it was so low profile, we were not allowed business cards» added Kusumoto.

In 1978, they relocated to a new location, the Orange County, California suburb of Newport Beach. That same year, for the first time, a Calty-influenced design, the iconic 1978 Toyota Celica Liftback, reached production. This design was studio's introduction of the sporty coupes.

Calty studio had more design responsibility. In the late 1980's Calty Designers committed  more to the coupe form. The result became visible in 1992 Lexus SC400.

The size of Calty grew in 1990, tripling in size and adding new buildings, employing 65 people working in 85,000 square foot design space. The Calty team persists to work closely with planning groups at Toyota Motor Sales in order to help establish production vehicle concept.

Many skills like CAD, modeling, sketching, clay modeling, milling, painting bring concept models to life.

In 2004, Calty opened a design center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to cooperate with nearby Toyota Technical Center. The Ann Arbor facility target the local production design attempts such as Tundra, Avalon which are products designed specifically for the North American market.

In 2012, Calty joined the Toyota Innovation Hub in San Francisco. This facility in Silicon Valley was strategically located and  was the key step in Toyota's global leadership to partner with innovative companies in technology, design and media.

 «We want to transplant the innovative culture of the Bay Area to Toyota's in-house innovation team», said, Kevin Hunter, President of Calty Design Research. « It is critical time for the automotive industry to redefine itself in response to new technology, customer's expectations for new experiences, and the way industries are structured. «

The Newport Beach and Ann Arbor studios, and the Toyota Innovation Hube were guided by Hunter, since 2007. Hunter was Toyota's first North American design president.  Under his leadership several key products were developed such as Scion Fuse, Lexus LF-LC, Toyota FT-HS, and now the FT-1. The future looks very bright for Calty.

 «Key volume sedans such as Avalon validated the regional development strategy. Focusing the design and engineering in the car's primary market resulted in a very successful and appealing sedan tailored to the tastes of the region's buyers» said Hunter. «As for the future, we see FT-1 as symbolic of an evolution in our mission as we move toward designs that better balance key emotional and rational elements as part of our brand promise. Calty will be integral in the movement to bring more emotional, more satisfying and engaging Toyota designs to market.»

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Next Year on Sale “Toyota Car of the Future”

“We aren’t trying to re-invent the wheel: just everything necessary to make them turn,” said Bob Carter, senior vice president of automotive operations for Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A. Inc. at the opening of CES, the world’s largest trade show. “Fuel cell electric vehicles will be in our future sooner than many people believe, and in much greater numbers than anyone expected.”

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There were two vehicles on the stage at the Toyota press conference: The FCV concept, displaying how a four-door mid-size sedan will look in Radiant Blue, and another one, the camouflage-taped engineering prototype used for comprehensive and extreme on-road testing in North America for more than a year. The prototype has constantly delivered zero-to-sixty acceleration of about 10 seconds, with no discharge other than water vapor, on a driving field of about 300 miles. It takes three to five minutes to refuel its hydrogen tanks.

 “Hydrogen works beautifully with oxygen to create water and electricity and nothing more,” said Carter. “Four years, the use of hydrogen gas to power an electric vehicle has been seen by many smart people as a foolish quest. Yes, there are significant challenges. The first is building the vehicle at a reasonable price for many people. The second is doing what WE can to help kick-start the construction of convenient hydrogen refueling infrastructure. We’re doing a good job with both and we will launch in 2015.”

There has been massive Toyota investment in fuel cell R&D, in the last 20 years, as well as, numerous testing and expanding a series of prototypes in North America, since 2002. For those 11 years, more than a million miles, the cost of building a fuel cell powertrain has been greatly reduced. In fact, Toyota measures a 95-percent cost reduction in the powertrain and fuel tanks of the vehicle which will be launched in 2015, in comparison to what it had cost to build the original prototype in 2002.

The FCV perform a considerable engineering achievement. A fully fueled vehicle will be able to deliver enough energy to power a house for a week in an emergency. Some consideration was given to developing an external power supply device that could be used in this manner.

 “There’s no doubt, that success of this technology will depend less on the genius of the car, than on the ownership experience,” said carter. “Cost is one thing, but convenience is another.”

Initially, the vehicle will be launched in California, therefore, Toyota has partnered with the University of California, Irvine’s Advanced Power and Energy Program (APEP), to determine the potential location for new hydrogen fueling stations. This mapped system, if achieved, could handle a fuel cell population confidently predicted by APEP at about 10,000 vehicles.

California already has authorized more than $200 million in funding to build about 20 new stations by 2015, a total of 40 by 2016, and as many as 100 by 2024.

“Stay tuned,” added Carter, “because this infrastructure thing is going to happen.” 

Toyota Corolla - American's love affair

American’s love affair, with the Corolla began in 1968 and the passion is still burning,” said Jack Hollis, Toyota vice president of Marketing. “Always the poster-child for Toyota's legendary quality, the Corolla is all-new for 2014 with expressive styling, a premium interior, and terrific driving dynamics. It's built for the way we live today and the places we go. From urban chic to family road trip, at 40 million we’re just getting started!”

Originally, the Corolla was designed to meet the changing needs of Japanese commuters in the mid-1960s.  When the first Corolla rolled off the line, many automakers offered basic safety features as optional. This resulted in the fact that Corolla was among the first car lines to include rear back-up lights as a standard feature. 
 

Today, the company produces more than 1.1 million Corollas every year, in factories all over the world, from the U.S., China, South Africa, Turkey to Venezuela. The new Corolla spread like wildfire around the world.

The new model was launched by Toyota under a campaign “Style Never Goes Out of Style,” which focuses on pop culture and the span of five decades, from the Corolla's launch in the 1960's until the present day.

Having customers in more than 150 countries, the Corolla has earned its title of “The World’s Car.” Happy and satisfied customers made it the best-selling car. If it wasn’t so, Toyota wouldn’t have sold the 40 millionth Corolla.

For the families who are looking for better fuel efficiency, Toyota announced the upcoming production of a Corolla hybrid.

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Hollis continued, “As we celebrate this 40 millionth milestone, we are grateful to all those who have owned and loved their Corollas for the past 47 years and proud of the generations of Corolla Chief Engineers for their enduring vision.”