More industry in India - good. More cars on the road - bad.

Quoted: Toyota Building Second Plant in India. - TOKYO (AP) -- Toyota, the world's second biggest automaker, is building its second plant in India to boost production in a key growing market.

Cool.

Quoted: TG Daily, TG Video: Aftermarket lithium-ion battery pack squeezes 150 MPG from a Toyota Prius

Cheaper than the Camry, but the lack of a gauge showing your mpg is like a curious oversight for a hybrid car.

Quoted: The Altima Hybrid is essentially a Toyota hybrid wrapped in Nissan’s attractive packaging. Nissan licensed Toyota’s hybrid technology.
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Nissan hybrids will benefit from the full amount of the tax credit for several years, while the tax credit for Toyota hybrids were sliced in half a few months ago. Within a year, the Toyota credit will be reduced to zero—thanks to an odd provision in the 2005 Energy Bill.

Quoted: Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Hertz, and Avis-Budget have all recently added a few thousand hybrids to their fleets. By the end of the year, Enterprise—the world’s largest automobile fleet in the world—will have ordered about 4,500 Priuses. Hertz is aiming to have 3,500 hybrids in their fleet by the end of 2008, and Avis-Budget is not far behind. Which company should you use to rent your next car?

Didn't know the Prius was selling this well.

Quoted: But While the Prius has become mainstream — it was the sixth-best-selling car in May — many of the other hybrids on the market have fallen short.

Not looking good for the U.S. automakers. What's especially troubling is that Toyota is starting to eat into the full size pickup market -- the last segment dominated by the Big Three.

Some of the latest offerings, especially from Ford (the Ford Fusion), are competitive. But, it might be too late to change perceptions.

Quoted: Over the first three months of the year, Ford's U.S. market share stood at 15.4 percent, behind GM's 22.9 percent and Toyota's 15.6 percent. DaimlerChrysler came in fourth at 13.8 percent and Honda placed fifth, at 9.1 percent.
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In the pickup truck market -- the last niche dominated by U.S. automakers -- GM, Ford and Chrysler all saw sales fall.

wow.

Quoted: Ford Motor Co. (F.N: Quote, Profile , Research) dropped from second to fourth in the U.S. auto market in November as its sales slid by 10 percent, while Toyota Motor Corp.'s (7203.T: Quote, NEWS , Research) sales surged 16 percent to put it in the No. 2 spot.

This virtual world is attracting the interest of real world companies.

Quoted: Not to be outdone, new metaverse developer Millions of Us (a sponsor of my SL blog, so take with a rock of sodium) announced they had an agreement with Toyota to offer an official, virtual edition of the Scion xB to Second Life residents.

Honda is also gaining.

Quoted: Sales at another Japanese automaker, Honda, rose 10.2 percent in July, also setting a record for the month. Honda finished only about 20,000 sales behind DaimlerChrysler during July, creating the prospect that it, too, will pass the German company this year.