Toyota Motor Co this week planted approximately 50,000 trees at the Tsutsumi plant as one of the company's sustainable plant activities. Based on the local greenery, 55 types of native trees were planted to create a multi-layered natural environment. Toyota has also planted NOx-absorbing vegetation on the rooftop of the Tsutsumi plant.

When CEO Takeo Fukui says he would spend $ 10 billion to rack up a Formula One victory for Honda, you get the sense that he really means it. Under Fukui's five-year leadership, Honda Motor's car sales have jumped by a third and profits by an even bigger margin to a record $5.8 billion last year. But it's the lack of an Fl win that sticks in the craw of the 63-year-old former engineer, who joined Honda precisely because it was the first Japanese automaker to enter the world's premier motor sport. Fukui just doesn't like to lose.

TOKYO: Toyota Motor said Thursday that the slowdown in the U.S. economy would most likely cause its first annual decline in profit in nine years, and accelerate a shift by it and other Asian carmakers into emerging markets like China, Latin America and the Middle East.

DETROIT: Soaring gasoline prices have turned the steady migration by Americans to smaller cars into a stampede. In what industry analysts are calling a first, about one in five vehicles sold in the United States was a compact or subcompact car during April, based on monthly sales data released Thursday. Almost a decade ago, when sport utility vehicles were at their peak of popularity, only one in every eight vehicles sold was a small car.

MELBOURNE is set to become the new production home of Toyota's hybrid Camry, with negotiations between Australia and Japan likely to conclude by mid-year. While the high-level talks are not yet wrapped up, sources have told The Age that senior Toyota executives in Tokyo are now strongly behind making the company's Altona plant the regional production base for the green Camry, provided the right government incentives are secured.

Toyotais set to invest $340m in a second plant on the outskirts of Bangalore that will produce its planned low-cost car. The move will improve the Japanese carmaker's position as it jockeys for business in one of the global industry's fastest-growing and most strategically important markets. India, with its large pool of first-time carbuyers and cheap engineering and manufacturing skills, is emerging as the car industry's biggest new centre of low-cost production. Renault, General Motors, and Suzuki all produce low-priced vehicles in the country.

The Japanese auto industry took a step towards consolidation yesterday with the agreement by Toyota, Fuji Heavy Industries and Daihatsu to extend their co-operation in research, development and product supply. Under the agreement, Toyota and FHI will jointly develop a compact sports car, which is set to hit the market by the end of 2011 and will be powered by an engine using FHI's core technology. To cement the strengthened alliance, Toyota will increase its stake in FHI from 8.7 per cent to 16.5 per cent.

US Car Makers Try To Copy Green Halo Of Prius US: April 9, 2008 DETROIT - When Tom Weatherbee swapped his minivan for a Toyota Prius hybrid two years ago, he was mostly hoping to save money at the gas pump. But he was pleasantly surprised by both the requests from friends for a test drive and the grins its aerodynamic profile drew at the grocery store, and he basked in the attention. "Even the people who own more expensive cars acknowledge the Prius as being pretty cool," said Weatherbee, 51, an electrical engineer who lives outside Traverse City, Michigan.

U.S. sales for each of the four largest automakers in the United States fell last month, prompting some executives to forecast a gloomy spring, a period that typically posts strong sales. General Motors and Toyota said they were optimistic about the benefits of declining interest rates and tax rebate checks that most Americans will get starting in May as part of the U.S. government's economic stimulus package. Executives at Ford Motor, however, said they did not think the industry had hit bottom yet.

Tata Motors, GM, Ford, Toyota Among Firms Hiring Auto Designers from IITs, NID Pramugdha Mamgain NEW DELHI