HEADLINE: Toyota seeks damage control, in public and private

CAPTION: In public, Toyota is running apologetic TV ads and vowing to win back customers'' trust. Behind the scenes, the besieged carmaker is trying to learn all it can about congressional investigations, maybe even steer them if it can. (Feb. 9)

[Notes:ANCHOR VOICE]

NB. THIS IS A VOICEOVER TRANSCRIPT, NOT A FULL SHOT LIST.

(Springfield, New Jersey)

"You just feel this jerk, this whoop! Type feeling."

That''s 2010 Prius Owner Scott Kivowitz describing the problem with his brakes.

"My first time experiencing it, it did scare me."

He''s anxious to get word from Toyota on when he can take his car

in for the recall fix.

(Scott Kivowitz, 2010 Prius Owner)

"The way I''m experiencing it is when I go over potholes and I have to hit the break pretty hard, it sort of gives a bit for a split second, and you feel this jump of acceleration and then the brakes kick in right away."

The automaker is recalling 437 thousand of the new Prius cars and other hybrids to fix the brakes.

The company''s president of American sales apologized on the company''s website.

BUG: Toyota.com

(Jim Lentz, Toyota President)

"I want to sincerely apologize to Toyota owners. I know that our recalls have caused many of you concern and for that I am truly sorry."

Toyota says recalled Prius owners will be notified by mail in the next few days of when and where they can bring their cars in to be

fixed.

(Ted Shaffrey, The Associated Press)

"Until very recently, Toyota had a fantastic reputation. The magazine Consumer Reports for the last six years has rated

the 2010 Prius one of their Top Picks among all new cars. It was rated on road tests, reliability and safety."

(Miami)

Many Toyota Dealers, like this one in Miami, say all the recalls are having a devastating effect on sales.

(Frank Marsala, Kendall Toyota)

"The biggest factor is the loss of sales, you know we have a fixed overhead here we have a lot of people on the payroll we have

advertising and process so, to cut your sales in half for 30 days is painful, but in the long run it will be a good thing for Toyota and Toyota dealers."

Trying to get ahead of the bad publicity, Toyota has been running TV commercials apologizing for their automobile''s problems.

NATS: "in recent days our company has not been living up to the standards you expect from us."

The commercial promises consumers it has stopped production of new cars until all problems are fixed.

Ted Shaffrey, The Associated Press, Springfield, New Jersey

HEADLINE: Toyota unveils new Prius at Detroit auto show

CAPTION: From new lithium ion battery packs to updated hybrids, carmakers are looking to step up the fuel efficiency of their vehicles. Toyota announced Monday that the third generation of the Prius, the standard for hybrids, will get a combined 50 miles to the gallon. (Jan. 12)

Nats of Prius unveiling

THE CAR THAT SET THE STANDARD FOR HYBRIDS IS NOW IN ENTERING ITS THIRD GENERATION.

TOYOTA UNVEILED THE NEW 2010 PRIUS AT THE NORTH AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW AND ANNOUNCED THE CAR WILL GET A COMBINED 50 MILES PER GALLON.

Bob Carter/Toyota Vice President

"Not only is this the most fuel efficient midsize in its segment. It is also the highest mileage car sold in America."

TRACY HANDLER, AUTO ANALYST FOR GLOBAL INSIGHT SAYS THE PRIUS HAS BECOME AN ICONIC BRAND FOR TOYOTA.

Tracy Handler/Auto Analyst

"All of those incremental miles per gallon help reduce fuel consumption in the US as a whole. So if there are more 50 mpg cars or 43's or 48's all of that really helps us with energy independence

ENERGY INDEPENDENCE FOR GENERAL MOTORS MEANS PRODUCING NEW BATTERIES.

GM CEO RICK WAGONER SAYS THE DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION OF ADVANCED BATTERIES MUST BE A CORE COMPETITENCY FOR THE AUTO MAKER.

SO AS A RESULT THE COMPANY WILL MANUFACTURE THIS LITHIOM ION BATTERY PACK IN MICHIGAN FOR THE CHEVY VOLT AND IT IS PARTNERING WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN TO CREATE A SPECIALIZED CURRICULUM FOR BATTERY ENGINEERS.

Rick Wagoner/G.M CEO

"Yes GM is getting back into the battery business. Our facility will be the first lithium ion battery manufacturing plant operated by a major auto maker in the US and of course it will create new green jobs.

MARK CARLSON/STANDUP

THE IDEA OF SAYING GOODBYE TO GASOLINE AND PLUGGING IN YOUR CAR FOR POWER SOUNDS PRETTY TEMPTING.

BUT THERE IS SOME CONCERN ABOUT WHERE ALL OF THIS NEW ELECTRICITY IS GOING TO COME FROM.

Tracy Handler/Auto Analyst

"The electric grid in the United States is vulnerable to start with and depending on how many electric cars you ad to it could cause some problems."

PRESSED BY CONGRESS TO RE-INVENT ITSELF, GENERAL MOTORS SAYS IT HAS NOW INVESTED MORE THAN ON BILLION DOLLARS ON THE ELECTRIFICATION OF THE AUTOMOBILE.

MARK CARLSON, AP, DETROIT

SHOTLIST:

Lordstown, Ohio - 18 November 2008

1. Wide exterior of the General Motors (GM) plant in Lordstown

2. Wide of the building, traffic passing

3. Wide pan across building exterior

4. Various of Lordstown village sign

5. Low-angle shot of street with snow

6. Low-angle interior of GM workers at a bowling alley

7. Low-angle of bowling ball rolling down lane towards pin

8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Carl Krawiec, GM Plant Employee:

"Well a lot of people are kind of nervous, they don't know what's going on."

9. Wide of men bowling

10. Low-angle shot pins going down as bowling ball hits

11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Leonard Schober, GM Plant Employee:

"I believe it would really hurt. It would be devastating to this whole area."

13. Various exteriors of Lordstown Diner

14. Lordstown Diner owner, Theresa Golden, folding napkins

15. Close-up of Golden wrapping cutlery in napkins

16. SOUNDBITE: (English) Theresa Golden, Lordstown Diner owner:

"If this plant would have close it's going to devastate this area. It's going to devastate all the businesses, the school systems, everything."

17. Mid of sign for Scarsella's Pizzeria

18. Various of Scarsella's Pizzeria owner, Sean Kushman, making pizzas behind counter

19. SOUNDBITE: Sean Kushman, Scarsella's Pizzeria owner:

"I think Lordstown will be a ghost town. There's not much out here. There's you know, basically the plant, a few other businesses out here that the plant deals with, whether it's the seeding companies or the companies that make the interior for the vehicles and if they close obviously there wouldn't be jobs for the other folks and they would probably shut down as well, it would just leave the town a ghost-town."

20. Wide of United Auto Workers President, Jim Graham sitting at his desk

21. Cutaway of nameplate on desk

22. SOUNDBITE: (English) Jim Graham, United Auto Workers President:

"If they don't get the loan, it's... I don't want to even think what's going to happen. Locally shutting down our plant would be devastating. Nationally, shutting down General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are going to affect about 3 (m) million people directly; indirectly the ripple effect is going to be astronomical. That's going to literally drive us deeper into this depression that we're already in."

Georgetown, Kentucky - 18 November 2008

23. Wide of Main Street

24. Close up of Main Street sign

25. Various of Toyota plant sign

26. Mid interior of people in Georgetown diner

27. Various of diners inside restaurant

28. SOUNDBITE: (English) Benjamin Bynum, Georgetown resident:

"Well I think Toyota has made some better decisions as far as more economical and environmentally friendly cars, which have proved to be a wiser business choice. I feel at the moment, better that Toyota is here and doing well even with their Prius sales in the area, as opposed to GM and Chrysler and Ford needing a bailout from Washington."

29. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sheri Gruchow, Georgetown Diner manager:

"You haven't seen Toyota on the news at all, you know saying about job cuts or anything basically like GM and Ford. You know they haven't laid off anybody that I know of, you know so, or has been on the news at least, that I know of, so it makes this community safer basically. Feel safer at least."

30. Mid of people in diner

31. Wide pull out of car driving past Toyota sign

STORYLINE

Residents in Ohio are considering how the collapse of the auto industry could set off a catastrophic chain reaction in the US economy, as the Senate's top Democrat on Wednesday called off a planned vote this week on a US 25 (b) billion bailout package.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Wednesday that while he wanted to figure out some way to help Detroit's struggling Big Three - efforts to do so had stalled.

With the vote stalled - residents in Lordstown, Ohio are preparing for the worst.

Earlier this month, GM announced that about 3,600 workers will be laid off indefinitely, beginning early next year at 10 of its assembly plants.

Those cuts will hit Lordstown hard, eliminating 850 jobs from the assembly plant there, roughly 25-percent of the workforce.

Another 162 jobs will come from the GM fabricating plant in Lordstown, resulting in total job losses of more than one thousand people.

At the Wedgewood Bowling alley, where many GM employees head to after work, the upcoming layoffs were top of mind.

Workers were concerned about their own jobs, and also the wider implications for the whole Ohio Rust Belt area.

Diner owner Theresa Golden expects her business to be hit hard in the coming months and she fears that with plant workers out of work, the whole town will be facing decreased tax revenues and losses across the board.

Local pizzeria owner Sean Kushman shared Golden's concerns and said Lordstown will become a ghost town.

Residents of Lordstown have held high hopes for a congressional bailout of the auto industry but with talks on Capitol Hill stalled optimism is dwindling.

The president of the United Auto Workers Union, Jim Graham said a failure of GM would be "astronomical" for the entire nation.

US auto companies employ nearly a quarter-million workers, and more than 730-thousand other people have jobs producing the materials and parts that go into cars.

About 1 (m) million on top of that work in dealerships nationwide.

If just one of the auto giants were to go belly up, some estimates put US job losses next year as high as 2.5 (m) million.

In Georgetown, Kentucky, where the foreign owned Toyota plant is based, optimism was a little higher.

Residents there said pointed to success of Toyota's Prius car as a reason they believe the company was not in the same dire situation as its competitors.

However on Wednesday Toyota said it would be forced to reduce production in the United States to cope with slowing sales in the world's largest economy.

The company said it will stop production at all its plants in the US and Canada for two extra days in addition to the regular Christmas holidays next month and cut about half of 500 temporary workers at the Kentucky plant by March.

The White House and congressional Republicans rejected Democrats' plan to dip into the 700 (b) billion US dollar Wall Street rescue fund to finance loans to US Automakers.

However a bipartisan group from auto industry states is working to cut a deal on a scaled-down aid package.

If agreement can be reached, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate could still vote on it as part of a measure to extend jobless benefits.

RESTRICTION SUMMARY: AP CLIENTS ONLY

SHOTLIST:

AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Geneva - 1 March 2016

1. Tilt from BMW logo to BMW740Le xDrive

2. "e drive" logo on car over fuel compartment

3. BMW740Le xDrive

4. BMW board member responsible for marketing and sales, Ian Robertson, getting into car

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ian Robertson, BMW board member responsible for marketing and sales:

"Low oil prices are, I think, a short-term phenomenon. Over time the oil price has gone up, it's come down. At the end of the day, we're looking to the longer term. And the longer term really does have this zero emissions element to it. And the legislation is clear. It's going in one direction, and it's going in one direction for the first time right across the world. So from that perspective, we see zero emissions as an important element within the overall fleet."

6. Volvo S90

7. Electric plug-in

8. Electric charging station

9. Person opening bonnet of car to show engine

10. SOUNDBITE (English) Jim Holder, Editorial Director of automotive magazine 'Autocar':

"I think the main thing about low fuel prices is that it's another reason for people not to buy an electric car. I think it'll put people off rather than stop them in the long run, because I don't think fuel prices will stay low, but definitely it's a disincentive. One of the main reasons for buying an electric car at the moment is to save money and you won't be saving as much money as perhaps you would have done a year ago."

11. Toyota "Auris Hybrid"

12. Pan left from Yaris Hybrid to another Yaris Hybrid

13. Toyota Prius hybrid

14. Badge on rear of car reading (English): "Hybrid"

15. SOUNDBITE (English) Johan Van Zyl, President and CEO for Toyota Motor Europe:

"The fact that hybrid gains popularity despite falling fuel prices shows that customers prefer them not only for their fuel economy, they appreciate the low cost of ownership, and the benefits of electric drive train without any range anxiety."

16. Holder at charging station

17. SOUNDBITE (English) Jim Holder, Editorial Director of automotive magazine 'Autocar':

"Electric works for some drivers, but it's a small niche of drivers, so some of the plug-in hybrids they have a range as small as 20 or 30 miles on electric power. Now obviously if you're commuting into a big city, that could be incredibly useful and it might be enough for a lot of people to do their daily journey. But for a lot it won't be enough. Even fully electric cars, some of them, their range in cold weather can be as low as 60 miles. So there is a real issue around range anxiety still, but I think the car makers are now seeing there could be a quantum leap forward there in the next 12 months and ranges could double as quickly as that. So electric cars are going to appeal to more people as some of those problems are taken away."

18. Various of 'Car of the Year' winner Opel/Vauxhall Astra

19. OPEL Group chairman Karl-Thomas Neumann speaking to journalist

20. SOUNDBITE (English) Karl-Thomas Neumann, OPEL Group chairman:

"All the cars you see here have new engines and we have designed them and built them and invested into them because we want to meet the CO2 requirements, so we reduced the consumption, and we also want to meet and exceed the emission requirements. And so the traditional combustion engines are very important because they are affordable. In the future, though, electric mobility is also very important, that's why we are investing into a new car which will be launched next year which is the Ampera-e,, which I think will be groundbreaking. It has 300 kilometres reach, more than, and it will also be affordable."

21. Rear of Opel/Vauxhall Astra

22. Various of Ford vehicles

STORYLINE:

Car manufacturers at the Geneva Motor Show remain confident buyers will continue purchasing fuel efficient electric and hybrid vehicles despite falling global oil prices.

BMW board member Ian Robertson called the low oil prices a "short-term phenomenon" and said the long-term will include a zero-emissions element internationally.

BMW's commitment comes despite selling less than 30,000 electric vehicles last year, out of record 2.2 million.

Despite the German carmaker's optimism, editorial director of the automotive magazine 'Autocar', Jim Holder, said the low fuel prices could temporarily deter cost-conscious consumers from opting for electric cars.

He said 'range anxiety' as well as cheap fuel prices, could deter some buyers.

But Toyota's Motor Europe President and CEO Johan Van Zyl disagrees.

He said his company's hybrid model's popularity - despite the falling fuel prices - shows a consumer preference.

Electric and hybrid vehicles accounted for only 119,600 of the 13.7 million vehicles sold in the European Union last year, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA).

But the numbers are growing rapidly and carmakers say they need to develop alternative technologies to position themselves for the future.

Holder said car makers are saying there could be a "quantum leap forward in the next 12 months and ranges could double as quickly as that."

OPEL Group chairman Karl-Thomas Neumann said his company, which won Car of the Year this year with its Astra model, is planning an electric car release next year that will have a 300 kilometre range.

===========================================================

Clients are reminded:

(i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: info@aparchive.com

(ii) they should check with the applicable collecting society in their Territory regarding the clearance of any sound recording or performance included within the AP Television News service

(iii) they have editorial responsibility for the use of all and any content included within the AP Television News service and for libel, privacy, compliance and third party rights applicable to their Territory.

HEADLINE: California Setting New Clean Car Standards

CAPTION: California is adopting rigorous new emissions standards for cars that will force automakers to make even cleaner engines, more hybrids and a diverse collection of alternative fuel vehicles. (January 25)

[Location: San Jose, CA]

[Source: AP]

[VO/NATS: "Future Cars" auto show]

THIS IS ONE OF THE DELOREANS USED IN THE MOVIE "BACK TO THE FUTURE."

THE MYTHICAL TIME MACHINE, POWERED BY PLUTONIUM, WAS ON DISPLAY AT A "FUTURE CAR" SHOW IN SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA.

WHILE THIS CAR IS FICTION...THE OTHER ALTERNATIVE FUEL VEHICLES SHOWN HERE ARE FACT...SOME AVAILABLE NOW...SOME COMING IN THE NEAR FUTURE...

[Location: El Monte, CA]

[Source: AP]

[VO/NATS: state emissions lab]

...AS CALIFORNIA SETS NEW STANDARDS TO LOWER EMISSIONS BY HALF WHILE PUSHING FOR INCREASED GAS MILEAGE REQUIREMENTS BY 2025.

[SOT/Michael Coates/Board Member - Western Auto Journalists] ("It'g going to be a challenge for the industry to meet the 55.4 miles per gallon. It's not going to be easy, and it will change the vehicles that we have. It's going to change the engines, it may change the fuels. It may change the technology that drives the cars."

THE GOAL, OF COURSE, IS TO REDUCE POLLUTION AND RELIANCE ON FOSSIL FUELS.

UNLIKE THE LAST ROUND OF NEW STANDARDS DEBATED A DECADE AGO, THE AUTO INDUSTRY SEEMS TO BE ON BOARD THIS TIME.

[SOT/Tom Cackette ("cay-ket")/Deputy Director - California Air Resources Board] ("When we did the first greenhouse gas standards, it was war. They were absolutely clear that they didn't want to do this. We shouldn't do this. We don't have the authority to do this. They sued us in two federal courts. Fortunately, from our viewpoint, they lost. Over that time, with the increase in gas prices, the shake up in the auto industry brought new management which looked at the future. Where's our future? It's not profits next quarter but how do we make a sustainable business."

[SOT/Michael Dobrin ("dobb-ren")/Toyota Public Relations] ("Yes, the cars will be lighter, compact, far more fuel efficient. That's what the mandate will be, not enforced by the government but really by the economics by the future.")

BUT EXPERTS SAY THE BEST WAY TO GET MORE DRIVERS TO BUY FUEL EFFICIENT CARS IS TO MAKE THEM MORE AFFORDABLE.

[SOT/Michael Coates/Board Member - Western Auto Journalists] ("As vehicles become more popular, historically prices have always come down. In some cases with the new technology they have to come down in order to be affordable. The auto industry can't charge what it costs to make some of these new technology cars.")

IN ADDITION TO THE NEW EMISSIONS AND FUEL STANDARDS, CALIFORNIA WILL ALSO REQUIRE THAT 15 PERCENT OF ALL VEHICLES SOLD BY 2025 ARE ELECTRIC CARS.

MEANWHILE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS PUSHING NEW NATIONWIDE REQUIREMENTS TO CATCH UP TO CALIFORNIA'S STRICT STANDARDS.

HAVEN DALEY, ASSOCIATED PRESS, SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA.