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Earth Day Challenge
Contest Details
Simply complete the tell-a-friend form to tell everyone you know about our petition urging Toyota to make more fuel-efficient family cars for the U.S. market. If at least 10 people that you tell sign the petition, you will be automatically entered into a random drawing for our GRAND PRIZE. If at least five of your friends sign the petition, you will be entered into a random drawing for the SECOND PRIZE. See full contest details here. We have 4 grand prizes and 6 second prizes to offer, so you'll have multiple chances to win!
The GRAND PRIZE includes:
A 1-year basic membership in the Better World Club. Membership services include towing coverage and emergency roadside assistance! See full membership benefits here. You'll also get your very own UCS HybridCenter.org "Cool Car—Cool Planet" T-shirt—the first t-shirt offered for the Award-winning HybridCenter.org website and its Driving Change Network! And finally, you'll get 10 UCS HybridCenter.org "Cool Car—Cool Planet" window stickers! These transparent background decals are easy to place, remove, and reuse, so you can put them on your car(s) or give them to your friends to help promote cooler cars.
SECOND PRIZE Includes:
1 "Cool Car—Cool Planet" t-shirt and 10 "Cool Car—Cool Planet" window stickers.
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Hybrid technology has the potential to play a major role in giving consumers fuel-efficient, low-pollution options in every vehicle class, but only if the technology is used to boost miles-per-gallon rather than miles-per-hour. Unfortunately, with this year's introduction of the GMC Yukon Hybrid, Dodge Durango Hybrid, and Lexus LS 600h L, the increased automaker focus on "muscle hybrid" models undercuts the value of this technology as a part a global warming pollution, gas price, and oil security solution. This is a disturbing trend compounded by "hollow hybrid" vehicles that use the hybrid name but do not qualify as hybrid vehicles (for more on hybrid vehicle characteristics, see our Hybrid Watchdog).
This is less the case in Japan, where since 2001 consumers have had a choice completely unavailable in the U.S. market—an efficient hybrid minivan. Toyota boasts that its Estima Hybrid minivan, recently redesigned in 2006, gets fuel economy on par with a compact car. We estimate that The Toyota Estima Hybrid could reach around 35 miles per gallon in the U.S. This would be a significant boost over even the most fuel-efficient models available in America—the Toyota Sienna and Dodge Caravan rated by the EPA at 22mpg.
Toyota—the current "standard bearer" in hybrid technology—needs to hear loud and clear from consumers that what we are looking for are more hybrids that deliver peak fuel-economy performance, not just more muscle. Toyota is targeting about 8,400 Estima sales in Japan this year. Bringing a US-ready version of the Estima to America, or alternatively producing a fuel-economy focused Sienna Hybrid (that would likely be produced at Toyota's Indiana factory) is a logical, and overdue, next step given its long, successful experience with hybrid minivans.
Toyota sells more vehicles in Japan than it does in America. So a petition surpassing their expected Estima sales numbers in Japan would send a strong signal that the U.S. market truly wants a greater choice in fuel-efficient hybrid models.
REMEMBER, OUR CHALLENGE DEADLINE IS MAY 28!
