Making Your New Toyota Run Cleaner Before You Even Start It

Toyota’s Latest Car Hauler Runs on Compressed Natural Gas

Toyota Transport, the automaker’s in-house vehicle transportation trucking company, now has its first car hauler that runs on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). The Long Beach, CA based truck/trailer does what any other car hauler can do, except it does it while emitting 85 percent less overall particulate matter and 10 percent less carbon dioxide. The CNG truck was commissioned by Toyota and designed and built in a joint collaboration with Peterbilt and Cottrell, Inc., the truck and trailer manufacturers.

“We started exploring the CNG option more than three years ago, and it has been worth the wait,” said Kirk Welch, Senior Analyst, Toyota Transport Compliance. “Natural gas is the cleanest burning fossil fuel and will help Toyota advance our environmental efforts to reduce fleet emissions.”

Initially, the placement of alternate fuel tanks presented a challenge for car haulers utilizing a 9-car trailer with an over-the-cab head rack.  However, working with Toyota’s specifications, Peterbilt and Cottrell were able to develop a tractor/trailer combination that accommodated the alternate fuel tanks, without compromising the extra vehicle hauling space of the head rack. The achievement marks the first full car hauler trailer with head rack that Cottrell has manufactured onto a CNG truck.

“Cottrell, Inc. is proud to help Toyota become the first domestic carrier to employ a CNG fueled car hauler. This was a first for Toyota Logistics but also for Cottrell. We were able to work with Peterbilt and Agility Fuel Systems to alter the design of our headrack to accommodate the natural gas tanks while still maximizing payload,” said Adam Strong, Western Regional Sales Manager for Cottrell, Inc.

Toyota Transport’s southern California Vehicle Delivery Operations in Long Beach and Mira Loma have 32 trucks in service, and the group delivers approximately 200,000 vehicles annually. Most of its car hauler trucks average more than 100,000 miles per year. With plans to deploy the truck locally out of Long Beach as a test, the company will evaluate the performance as well as compare the efficiency versus the current diesel trucks. The CNG truck is expected to drive an average of 7,000 to 8,000 miles per month.

The purchase of the truck advances Toyota’s own environmental endeavors and efforts in its support of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) SmartWay program, the public-private initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution created by freight transportation in corporate supply chains. Toyota’s environmental commitment has been widely recognized, most recently with a SmartWay Excellence Award/Truck Carrier from the EPA in October 2015.

EPA’s SmartWay Transport Partnership is a market-driven initiative that empowers businesses to move goods in the cleanest, most energy-efficient way possible, while protecting public health and reducing the impacts of climate change. Since 2004, SmartWay Partners have saved 144.3 million barrels of oil and $20.6 billion in fuel costs. SmartWay’s clean air achievements (61.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, 1,070,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 43,000 tons of particulate matter emissions avoided) help to protect the well-being of citizens.

About Maita Toyota in Sacramento, CA

Maita Toyota is a full service Toyota & Scion dealership offering New Toyota and pre-owned vehicles as well as a full Service Department.  We treat the needs of each individual customer with paramount concern. We know that you have high expectations, and as a car dealer we enjoy the challenge of meeting and exceeding those standards each and every time. Allow us to demonstrate our commitment to excellence!

Our experienced sales staff is eager to share its knowledge and enthusiasm with you. We encourage you to browse our online inventory, schedule a test drive and investigate financing options. You can also request more information about a vehicle using our online form or by calling (916) 481-0855.

If you don't see a particular vehicle, click on CarFinder and complete the form. We will gladly inform you when a matching car arrives. If you'd like to see a vehicle in person, click on Dealership: Directions for step-by-step driving instructions to our site, or give us a call. We look forward to serving you!

Toyota Turns Compost Into Cars

Toyota’s Georgetown Plant Contributes to Global Environmental Goal

Landfill Gas Generator to Produce One Million Watts for Vehicle Production

Toyota is working to help everyone breathe a little easier.

The company recently announced its intent to virtually eliminate CO2 emissions from its factories and vehicles, and it’s about to flip the switch on a very tangible example of this effort. Toyota’s Georgetown, Ky., manufacturing plant will begin generating electricity from methane, a byproduct of trash decomposition at the nearby Central Kentucky Landfill on Nov. 23, 2015. 

 

“We will generate one megawatt (1 million watts) per hour at the site,” said Toyota’s environmental strategies manager Dave Absher. “That’s enough annual energy generation to produce approximately 10,000 vehicles. The system can eventually be scaled up to 10 megawatts per hour.”

 

Toyota’s global headquarters recently announced a very aggressive goal of largely eliminating CO2 emissions from its vehicles and manufacturing plants by 2050. The launch of the Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicle this year; making its fuel cell patents available to other automakers; and developing manufacturing technologies that use hydrogen as a power source are specific initiatives mentioned within the plan.  Alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, and locally produced renewable energy also will be required to achieve the goal.

 

“The landfill gas generator represents the kind of thinking that our company is asking us to do to reduce our carbon footprint over the next 35 years,” said Kevin Butt, Toyota’s general manager for environment strategies. “It’s a small step, but a significant one. These types of changes to our manufacturing operations coupled with other global initiatives will help us reach this very aggressive goal.”

 

The project is a collaboration between Toyota’s Georgetown manufacturing plant and the Central Kentucky Landfill owned and operated by Waste Services of the Bluegrass. Landfills are required to monitor methane levels and report these levels to the EPA. Capturing and burning the methane has been determined by the EPA to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Toyota Georgetown’s project began in 2010 when the two companies met to discuss the potential. Last fall, Waste Services began installing a methane collection system and Toyota began installing the generator at the site. An underground electric transmission line runs from the landfill approximately 6.5 miles to deliver the electricity to the plant. 

 

“This project was a true collaboration between the two companies,” said Absher. “There was also a tremendous amount of support from the local community, public utilities and elected officials to get the project off the ground.”

 

More information about Toyota’s environmental initiatives is available in the North American Environmental Report http://www.toyota.com/usa/environmentreport2015/ which was released this week.

About Maita Toyota in Sacramento, CA

Maita Toyota treats the needs of each individual customer with paramount concern. We know that you have high expectations, and as a car dealer we enjoy the challenge of meeting and exceeding those standards each and every time. Allow us to demonstrate our commitment to excellence!

Our experienced sales staff is eager to share its knowledge and enthusiasm with you. We encourage you to browse our online inventory, schedule a test drive and investigate financing options. You can also request more information about a vehicle using our online form or by calling (916) 481-0855.

If you don't see a particular vehicle, click on CarFinder and complete the form. We will gladly inform you when a matching car arrives. If you'd like to see a vehicle in person, click on Dealership: Directions for step-by-step driving instructions to our site, or give us a call. We look forward to serving you!

When You Can’t Find the Words, Talk Trash with FanMojis

October 13, 2015

You could talk trash to your friends using words. But that seems like a throwback to the days when Big Games were denoted using Roman Numerals and an arbitrary bowl system decided college football's king.

And Toyota isn’t about moving backward, even for fandom. No, Toyota is about going forward, and giving sports fans a new way to talk smack when their team thrashes their opponents.

Maybe you’re paying more attention to  than  , but that doesn’t mean a  can stop your   from its destiny as a .  And then, when your offense gets the ball back, it’s a simple case of    all the way to . 

Because your receivers don’t have . They go across the middle.

So, Toyota is proud to introduce FanMojis, a custom keyboard consisting of hyper-specific sports emojis that allow fans to own the sports conversation and visually express their feelings at peak emotional moments of a game.

To complement the new emoji app, multiple broadcast spots are rolling out through October to show how dedicated sports fans go places. The campaign takes a look at how being a sports fan means putting a little of yourself into something to go that extra mile. That extra mile is where Toyota believes IT happens – the rush, the nail biting, the stranger hugging. And in this campaign, Toyota is celebrating the fans that put their all into sports for the connection it fosters with others.

You can download the app now in the Apple store and view the first of four sports fandom spots here. #FanMojis