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se market (Toyota, 2009). The system has been so successful that Toyota has announced plans to introduce HSD on all its models from around 2015-2019. Concomitant with this success has been work, jointly undertaken with Honda, to reduce the costs of hybrids, and this too has been successful: between 2005 and 2009, the incremental costs of hybrid vehicles was reduced by 50% (Toyota, 2009b). As a result, Toyota is now widely seen around the world as one of the most dynamic and experimental - but also successful - manufacturers of hybrid cars.

The recent economic crisis has somewhat dented Toyota's previous enthusiasm for hybrid technology, although the company remains committed to the concept in the long-term. Prior to the onset of the 2007 economic crisis, it was widely noted that although Toyota had made major improvements in terms of both the technology and affordability of the hybrid program, there was still a great deal of work to be done, and this would require continued high levels of investment. However, the economic crisis has removed much of the company's financial stability, and this has resulted in a reappraisal of Toyota's ability to fund the kind of aggressive investment that is widely accepted as necessary in order to bring HSD technology to a much wider range of everyday cars. Toyota has admitted that funding for some projects has been put on hold, but remains committed to continuing investment with its core Prius, Lexus and Hybrid ranges (Toyota, 2009b). The company's public identity is so closely linked with environmentally friendly cars, that Toyota faces two conflicting elements of the debate over its continued investment in this area during troubled economic times: on the one hand, investing in this technology is one of Toyota's unique selling points (USP's) and arguably helps it maintain a high profile even among users who are not (for whatever reason) likely to purchase a hybrid vehicle in the near future; on the other hand, this public image is so well established that the company could likely afford to rein in its spending in this area and concentrate on promoting its existing technologies, and this would probably be enough to maintain the public image of Toyota as an environmentally friendly, socially responsible car manufacturer.

Criticisms of Toyota's Social Responsibility

Toyota has been roundly praised by many analysts, who argue that the company's environmental and social responsibility programs have been strong, effective and genuine. However, these programs have not been without their critics. William B. Werther and David Chandler suggest that 'much of Toyota's press commentary on the issue of social responsibility has focused on recycling the same initiatives repeatedly, rather than developing new policies' (Werther & Chandler, 2006, p. 88). The company has proved remarkably adept when it comes to repackaging old news, and this old news is in many cases more effective than the new news of rival manufacturers, but it's still possible to argue that Toyota has not really moved on with its social responsibility programs since the early 2000's. Furthermore, some of its aims - such as educating children about the dangers of global warming - are laudable rhetoric but have not been transformed into realisable achie本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。