#toyta

In August, we brought you a sensational story about a Volkswagen dealer in Daqing who used naked girls to get car buyers interested. Today, Carnewschina found another one, a Toyota dealer in Shanghai who hired a naked girl to sell some Camrys. Well, not quite naked, she stripped down to shorts and pasties. Not sure how many Camry that sold, but the building quickly teemed with ‘journalists’ and ‘car buyers’ . The girl appeared unperturbed. Warning: Hitting the jump could get you fired in prude America.

When the whole “acceler-gate” scandal broke out, there were, pretty much, two reactions.

1. OH MY GOD!!!!!! STOP DRIVING YOUR TOYOTAS!!!!!! WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!!

And 2. Witch-hunt. Witch-hunt. Witch-hunt!

Well, irrespective of who was right, an investigation of the whole affair needed to happen. The US government did an investigation of their own and didn’t like the results. But Toyota also did an investigation of its own. They found something.

EVs are also called “Yes but cars.” As in “Yes, but the power needs to come from somewhere. Usually from a dirty plant with a huge smokestack..” Several companies don’t want to hear that anymore and develop a smart grid that powers houses and cars entirely from renewable energy sources. At least that’s the plan.

Toyota definitely keeps us on our toes. Last week, the tete-a-tete between Toyota and Tesla had the world speculating about an electric push by the world’s largest auto maker. That was last week. This week, it’s hydrogen.