Toyota has apparently seen the light and given up the idea of competing head on with the Detroit 3 for big truck supremacy. Toyota America president Jim Lentz told Automotive News that his company no longer plans to challenge for the top spot in the segment. With the market shrinking fast, Toyota's share has been dropping even faster. Tundra sales were down 60.7 percent in September compared to only a 3.9 percent drop at Chevrolet. Ford, which is preparing to launch the F-150 in the coming weeks saw sales of the old model drop 41.6 percent while Dodge Ram sales were 30.6 percent off. Toyota has already decided to consolidate full size truck production from two factories to one and Lentz also confirmed reports that the diesel engine for the Tundra that was announced last January has been shelved. With volumes down so much, adding another engine to the mix at this point doesn't make sense for Toyota.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

Big news from Toyota this morning. The next gen Prius is coming to America! Production that is. Toyota just announced that starting in late 2010, it would start building the Prius outside of Japan for the first time as production starts at a new plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi. When Toyota first announced the plant last year it was scheduled to build the Highlander crossover. However, the collapse of sales of larger trucks and SUVs has hit Toyota just as hard as the domestic automakers. Sales of the Tundra full-size pickup were down nearly 50 percent in June. As a result Toyota is shuffling around production of several vehicle lines. Toyota will start by suspending all production of Tundra pickups and Sequoia SUVs along with the V8 engines that power them on August 8. Production of those products will resume in November. Next spring all full size truck production will be consolidated at the San Antonio Texas assembly plant. The truck line at the Princeton Indiana plant will be switched over to building Highlanders with production to start in the fall of 2009. That will free up the new Mississippi plant to build the Prius and possibly the Lexus variant as well.

[Source: Toyota]

At the New York Auto Show, Toyota U.S. General Manager Bob Carter spoke with Bloomberg about high fuel prices and the full-size truck market (see video below the fold). Carter said "we are not immune to what the current market conditions are and many full-size truck owners are delaying their purchases, waiting to see exactly where the market is going to go in fuel prices." Not to worry, Carter said, because "we may sell a few less Tundras but we will transfer that reduction in sales to our more fuel efficient models like the Prius and the hybrids." Can Toyota hybrids make up for a decrease Tundra sales? It's unclear. Toyota has predicted that they will sell fewer hybrids this year than last year and Prius sales are already showing declines. It's not totally clear on how Carter predicts hybrids will make up for slowing Tundra sales when Toyota is also predicting its hybrid sales will decrease.

[Source: ClipSyndicate]

According to AutoWeek, Automotive News has reported that Ford will introduce North America's first light-duty diesel truck in either 2008 or 2009. The confirmation came from Ford's former vice-president of manufacturing for the Americas, Dave Szczupak,who retired last week.

According to the former executive, the F-150 is slated to get a cleaner version of the 3.6 liter V-8 diesel engine used in the European model Range Rover that was developed in conjunction with PSA Peugeot Citroen. The British-market SUV generates 267 horses and 472 lb-ft of torque while sipping fuel at a rate of just 25 mpg.

Szczupak said that two major tasks lie ahead for Ford diesel engineers to get the engine U.S.-certified. First of all, components must be redesigned to generate a cleaner combustion inside the cylinder. Secondly, the diesel team must choose an effective yet affordable emissions system whether it include a lean NOx trap or urea injection.

Other automakers are progressing with efforts to enter the light-duty diesel truck segment, however, none are situated as well as Ford to introduce the first vehicle. Toyota and Nissan are working to get diesel engines inside their Tundra and Titan, respectively, however, neither company has announced a deal with an engine supplier. As for the domestics, 2010 seems to be the magic year. Dodge is expected to receive V-6 and V-8 diesel engines from Cummins at that time while GM announced it would produce a small V-8 diesel truck engine just after.

[Source: Automotive News via AutoWeek]