Kieron Reilly ( Parts Manager Bowater Toyota), Emma King-Turner, Tony Bowater (CEO Bowater Toyota

The Bowater Motor Group is very proud of it's employees. Everyone is treated as part of the family, and as such it is important for everyone that works at Bowaters to be able to achieve their full potential. When someone shows interest in taking on more responsibility and upskilling themselves, management at Bowaters take notice, and work hard to make it happen.

This week we enjoyed yet another proud moment behind the scenes of the Bowater Motor Group, as Emma King-Turner, our parts advisor from Bowater Toyota received her National Certificate in Business.

Emma has invested a considerable amount of her "free time" into achieving this qualification, as well as gaining the support of management at Bowater Toyota to enable her to attend the work time courses at MITO (Motor Industry Training Organisation) over the year she has been studying.

Expect Hybrid-Assisted Power, Different Sheetmetal, and a Tokyo Show Concept Debut.

A conceptual mockup has emerged on the internet of the next generation hybrid GT86 - the platform for the Toyota / BMW jointly developed sports car?

Thanks to MotorTrend.com for this great article we found today. A little bit of speculation on their behalf, and some creative license applied, but very exciting considering how the last joint ventured developed car turned out - the iconic Toyota 86.
Stay tuned - we will follow this story with much interest.

The MotorTrend article:

When BMW and Toyota announced their intention earlier this year to produce a jointly developed, midsize sports car, it took some industry watchers by surprise. You can certainly argue Toyota needs help building up its performance portfolio, but you can't say the same for the gang from Munich, which already has a garage full of Ultimate Driving Machines.

It all starts to make sense when you look closer at the budding BMW-Toyota tie-up, which began in late 2011. It's the sort of mutually beneficial relationship that is starting to become more commonplace in the industry.

"Toyota is strong in environment-friendly hybrids and fuel cells… I believe BMW's strength is developing sports cars," said Toyota boss Akio Toyoda in January. "I get so excited thinking about the cars that will result from this relationship." So do we, Toyoda-san, so do we.

So while jointly developed diesels, fuel cells, and the latest lithium battery and hybrid tech likely are more exciting from a corporate perspective, enthusiasts are salivating about the sports car. Looking at the existing Toyota-BMW lineups, an upscale sports coupe makes the most sense. It could possibly signal the return of the Supra and fill yet another niche in the BMW portfolio as a stand-alone coupe different in mission and positioning than the Z4 or the soon-to-arrive 4 Series and i8 plug-in hybrid sports car.

The Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive unit in the new 2012 Prius C.

As Toyota announces that five million hybrid vehicles have been sold in 80 countries throughout the world, New Zealand motorists are also embracing the technology with record sales in this country.

Toyota says that in the last 11 months it has sold a record-breaking million hybrid vehicles globally, bringing the world total of hybrids sold to 5,125,600, including 50,000 in Australia and 5500 in New Zealand.

The five million-plus hybrids sold have saved about 12 billion litres of petrol and led to around 34 million fewer tons of CO2 being emitted compared with petrol-powered vehicles of similar size and driving performance.