Toyota's Prius, Not Tree Hugging but Tree Cutting

Here's a piece of news that might keep fake city environmentalists and Prius owners up all night, curled up in a fetal position. While largely perceived as a company devoted to the preservation of the environment and the reduction of CO2 emissions, Toyota proves that a company is still a company, even if Japanese. This means that most of the time, dough is more important than saving the precious trees.

According to report by Bloomberg, Toyota Motor Corp. plans to build a research center amid 1,631 acres (660 hectares) of rice paddies that date to the 17th century and cedar forests in Aichi Prefecture's Shimoyama village, a 30-minute drive from the Toyota City headquarters. Since Toyota is facing serious competition from Honda's Insight on the hybrid territory, the company aims to speed up the testing process involved in releasing a future version of the Prius and/or other models on the market.

“The market keeps changing. Shortening the development period for hybrids especially is something that we’ve been told to do -- and it’s not just limited to hybrids,” Akihiko Otsuka, chief engineer of Toyota’s newest Prius, which takes 50 miles to the gallon, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

Apparently, the most difficult and time consuming part of the latest Prius' development was the improvement of fuel economy. After testing every Monday for the first part four and a half years of the development cycle, in the final year, engineers went on the testing circuit every day.

Local activists are obviously concerned as they claim the construction will destroy the habitat of the gray-faced buzzard and oriental honey buzzard. This, in addition to the deforestation of 691 acres and the destruction of rice paddies and leveling of mountains.

“Most people think of Toyota as an environmentally friendly company. Crushing mountains is environmentally destructive,” Shigemi Oda, chairman of the Society to Consider the Large-Scale Development Project of the 21st Century, was quoted by the same source as saying.