Socially savvy Toyota

New cooperative effort with Toyota and Salesforce.com to offer social networking to electric car and hybrid owners
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Not wishing to be seen as anything but socially savvy, Toyota is taking steps to attract the attention of younger-generation buyers with the establishment of Toyota Friend – a private social network aimed at giving electric car and plug-in hybrid owners a closer connection with their cars, dealers and the company itself.

The network will be built in a cooperative effort between Toyota Motor Corp and Salesforce.com, under the umbrella of a new subsidiary, Toyota Media Service Co. Toyota will invest approximately A$5.1 million in the setup, while Salesforce will contribute A$2.6 million.

The service will be available on smart phones and tablet computers. One service will notify the driver if battery power is running low (you would hope the car's onboard information display would do likewise).

Toyota, which has so far been a little behind the eightball in electric car and alternative fuel development, having invested heavily in hybrid technology, also recently announced an upcoming service developed in conjunction with Microsoft Corp that is designed to help electric vehicles run more efficiently.

The company says Toyota Friend will become operational in 2012.

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