Toyota to partner with Google in South Africa

Toyota SA today handed over a fleet of Prius hybrid vehicles to Google for imagery collection in South Africa for the Street View feature in its Google Maps application. 

The Prius with its Hybrid Synergy Drive technology was chosen by Google as the vehicle of choice for this project. In the coming weeks the  branded Google Prius vehicles will be driving around the country taking photographs of locations in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and Durban.   Street View, a hugely popular feature of Google Maps, is already available in more than 100 metropolitan areas around the world. It allows users to virtually explore and navigate a neighbourhood through panoramic street-level images. It is also available in Google Earth and on Google Maps for Mobile.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Google and supplying our fuel efficient and environmentally friendly Prius for this groundbreaking project in South Africa,” says Andrew Kirby, Toyota’s Senior Vice-President: Sales and Marketing, adding that the choice of Toyota as company and the Prius as preferred vehicle for this project underlines Google’s commitment as an environmentally conscious company. “With its consumption figure of 4.3 litres per 100 km in urban driving conditions and CO2 emission figure of only 104 g/km the Prius is perfectly suitable for the Street View project as it can operate on battery power only at speeds of up to 30 km/h for limited periods,” explained Kirby. 

The Prius CVT has proven popular world wide and global sales as at end of June totaled more than 1.9 million with nearly 45% of those sales recorded in 2007 and 2008. “Since launch in 2005 in South Africa Prius sales have surpassed 800 in total which provides a solid base for us to grow our hybrid market with the recent introduction of the new third generation model. “We wish the Google team all the best with the Street View project in the knowledge that their Prius vehicles, apart from their environmental credentials, have been proven to be one the most reliable vehicles in South Africa,” concluded Kirby.

Stephen Newton, Country Manager for Google South Africa, thanked Toyota for its involvement in this groundbreaking project in South Africa. “We are excited to partner with a company renowned for its reliability and quality, but also for its innovative and cutting-edge technology as seen  in the Toyota Prius.”