Prius production heading to Mississippi, Tundra to Texas
Toyota’s got some changes and rearranges underway with its North American facilities to better serve the demands of the market. The biggest news is that Prius production will be coming Stateside, which will help unkink the supply pipeline, if not also lower costs. A new facility in Blue Springs, Mississippi is being readied for the battery-pack-mobile, though the location was initially meant to turn out Highlanders. With consumer desires shifting with the rise of fuel prices, cranking out more Priuses is a higher priority, and beginning in fall 2009, the Highlander will shuffle off to Princeton, Indiana. With the Highlander elbowing its way into the Princeton plant, the vehicle currently produced there, the Tundra, will see its production move under a single roof in San Antonio, Texas.
The big-truck moves are of little consequence when the plants are scheduled to be idled beginning August 8th due to lack of demand. Huntsville, Alabama will also hold up on cranking out V8 engines. While Toyota is putting some plants in neutral, it pledges to provide employment to affected team members during the shutdown. All of this shuffling is an attempt by Toyota to avoid sustaining humongous hits as the market for new cars takes a dump, as well as ensuring that the products it remains building match up with consumer desires. Always a good thing to make the things people want.
Shnell! Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series
After months of spy shots and speculation, the Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series is finally out in the open. And with a $320,000 price tag, a twin-turbocharged 6.0-liter V12 and only 200 units on their way to the U.S., it’s a serious stopgap between the deceased SLR and Mercedes’ 2011 SLC gullwing supercar.
Mercedes’ in-house tuners applied their tried and true philosophy to the SL65 AMG Black Series, beginning with a carbon fiber hood, fenders and trunk, along with nixing the retractable hard top in favor of a fixed carbon fiber roof with an integrated roll cage. As such, the Black is 550 pounds lighter than the stock SL65, coming in at 4,122 pounds.
Seven vents – three in the bumper, two on the hood and two in the fenders – feed copious quantities of air to the 6.0-liter V12, fitted with a duo of upgraded turbochargers. Power is up to 661 hp available at 5,400 rpm, while torque remains the same at 738 lb.-ft. With a five-speed automatic gearbox equipped with AMG’s speedshift software, the Black can hit 60 mph in 3.9 seconds on its way to a gearing-limited top speed of 199 mph.
Expect the SL65 AMG Black Series to debut in Paris, with sales beginning in the U.S. early next year.