Toyota Motor Corp boosted production of the Prius gasoline-electric car by a third in April, taking advantage of surging oil prices that boosted demand for fuel-efficient vehicles.
Production of the so-called hybrid cars was raised to 10,000 units a month from 7,500 in central Japan's Aichi Prefecture, spokesman Shigeru Hayakawa said in Tokyo.
The US$25,000 price tag on a Prius, more than 10 percent higher than a comparable car running on gasoline, is attracting more consumers after regular-grade gasoline prices rose 39 percent on average this year to US$2.051 a gallon.
The Prius can go as far as 89km on a gallon of gasoline while emitting 90 percent less tailpipe exhaust than the average new car of a same-size engine, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Demand for hybrid-electric cars has risen 41 percent in the US to a record 22,919 units this year through April, led by a 78 percent increase for the Prius and a 10.9 percent gain for Honda's Civic Hybrid and Insight models.
Toyota's Lexus luxury unit will start selling a hybrid version of the RX 330 sport-utility vehicle late this year.
Ford Motor Co plans to produce gasoline-electric version of its Escape sport-utility vehicle next month in the US, while General Motors Corp plans to sell hybrid large pickup trucks later this year. Nissan plans to release a hybrid Altima sedan in the US in 2006.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that its research institute has launched its first advanced artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) using traditional Chinese, with technology assistance from Nvidia Corp. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said the LLM, FoxBrain, is expected to improve its data analysis capabilities for smart manufacturing, and electric vehicle and smart city development. An LLM is a type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data and uses deep learning techniques, particularly neural networks, to process and generate language. They are essential for building and improving AI-powered servers. Nvidia provided assistance
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