While the Segway Personal Transporter (PT) hasn’t exactly blossomed with regard to finding global traction as an alternative to traditional two-wheeled modes of transport, Japanese automotive giant Toyota Motor Corp. has opted to push the technology with its new Winglet.

Unveiled by Toyota this past Friday during a media conference in Tokyo, the Winglet emerges as similar to the Segway PT insofar as it’s a motorised stand-up-and-ride vehicle, but differs dramatically in that it is notably smaller than the American-built contraption.

According to Toyota, the Winglet is being developed with a view to providing people restricted by reduced mobility with a near-effortless means of navigating shopping malls and airports via a convenient transportation alternative.

However, the aim of convenience throughout publicly-accessed walkways and pedestrian areas is exactly what has stymied the Segway’s international adoption, with the device repeatedly hamstrung by usage bans across several significant markets, including certain parts of the United States and regions of Europe.

In Japan, the Segway is classified as a motorcycle and must be equipped with brakes, signal lights and a registration number plate, which places the intuitive transporter as a street vehicle and all-but prevents its use within designated public areas.

While it remains to be seen whether Toyota will avoid similar bans and potentially crippling conditions with a device specifically engineered for use in busy public places, the auto company claims the official Winglet design will deliver a top motion speed of just 6kph (3.7mph), which is the equivalent of pedestrian walking speed.

By contrast, the ‘Red Key’ Segway PT for advanced users is capable of travelling at speeds of up to 20kph, which is more than 12mph and more than three times regular walking speed.

Controlled completely through the application of body positioning (much like the Segway), the smallest Winglet in the series weighs in at a mere 9.9 kilos, or 22 pounds.

Toyota expects to release a total of three Winglet models. The first, the “L” edition, will most closely resemble the Segway and come complete with a long, tubular stem that reaches to waist height and includes guidance-friendly control grips.

The other two, more advanced usage models, the “M” and “S” editions, will have shorter, padded stems that are gripped between the rider’s knees and calves respectively. Cruising range on the “L” is said to be 5km, while the “M” and “S” models will deliver 10km — all three require a one-hour charge time.

Toyota is also planning to include a collapsing function for increased portability, helping the folded Winglet to fit easily within a car’s trunk space or onto the luggage rack of a commuter train.

Toyota representatives have outlined that more in-depth Winglet testing and gathering of public feedback is scheduled to begin at an as-yet unnamed Japanese airport and resort complex before the close of the year. The vehicle will also be tested in a Japanese shopping mall during 2009.

Company executive Takeshi Uchiyamada, who presented and demonstrated the Winglet at Toyota’s recent media event, said that Toyota has not yet assigned a final price to the little vehicle and presently has no plans to offer it at a commercial level.

Tokyo, Aug 04, 2008 (ACN Newswire via COMTEX) — Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announced today that Toyota Motor Thailand Co., Ltd. (TMT) carried out Thailand’s largest-ever[1] tree-planting event at TMT’s Ban Pho Plant in Chachoengsao Province, Thailand.
More than 10,000 volunteers?including local residents, officials of Chachoengsao Province, Toyota suppliers and dealers, and plant employees and their family members?gathered to give root to approximately 100,000 trees at and around the vehicle production facility.
The event?representing TMC’s ongoing effort to plant trees at and around vehicle production facilities as part of its global sustainable plant activities[2]?was designed to create a multi-layered natural environment using trees native to the area and to create a production site that could serve as a lush and diverse habitat for various living creatures. Based on a survey of the local flora, 34 types of tree including yang-na and takien thong were selected, with approximately 100,000 trees planted in total.
The Ban Pho Plant, which began operation in 2007, is aimed at being an innovative plant in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of its production technology and environmental response. It has achieved zero landfill waste since commencing operations and was the first overseas TMC plant to introduce a cogeneration system and solar panels, which enable it to cut its CO2 emissions by 9,000 tons annually. In addition, wastewater is recycled at the plant and water-borne metallic-paint is used in vehicle body paint lines. Currently, a biotope[3] being created at the plant will promote the reuse of materials from production and production-related processes, such as using wood from shipping crates to build bridges, waste plastic to create benches, and blocks made from solidified waste to pave footpaths.
The Ban Pho Plant, together with TMC’s Tsutsumi Plant in Japan, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Mississippi, Inc. (TMMMS) in the United States, Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd., and Toyota Motor Manufacturing France S.A.S. (TMMF), is a model plant for sustainable plant activities.
TMC believes that the successful implementation of its sustainable plant activities depends on how well it can cultivate eco-consciousness among its employees and the ability of its plants to coexist with their surrounding communities. At the Ban Pho Plant, environmental displays have been set up in each production process area to raise employees’ environmental awareness, and, through such actions as today’s tree-planting event and the future opening of the biotope to the general public, the plant intends to further its sustainable plant activities, aiming to become a production facility that will be embraced by the surrounding community.
In the future, TMC plans to gradually initiate such activities at all of its plants around the world to make sustainable plants a reality.
[1] According to TMT studies
[2] TMC is steadily expanding the number of production facilities worldwide at which sustainable plant activities are undertaken. In July 2007, aiming to create production sites that make use of the natural environment and achieve harmony with nature, these activities were launched with a focus on the following three areas:
i) Energy reduction through the development and introduction of low CO2-emitting production technologies and the implementation of daily kaizen (continuous improvement) activities
ii) Switching over to renewable energy such as solar power
iii) Contributing to the local community and conserving the environment by planting trees at and around plants
[3] An area uniform in climate and distribution of animal and plant life
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TM 82.64, -2.44, -2.9%) , which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, has developed into one of the world’s best known automobile manufacturers. The Toyota Group sold over 8.5 million vehicles under the Toyota, Lexus, Daihatsu, and Hino brands in more than 170 countries and regions in fiscal 2007. Further, the Company’s production is firmly rooted in local communities, with 52 companies manufacturing vehicles and parts in 26 countries and regions. Toyota had approximately 300,000 employees on a consolidated basis at the end of fiscal 2007. The company is headquartered in Aichi, Japan. For more information, please visit www.toyota.co.jp/en/index.html .