'prius plug-in hybrids' core of toyota fleet for marathon

Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announces it will provide 34 vehicles, including 21 units of the "Prius Plug-in Hybrid", as the official fleet for the 87th Tokyo Hakone kan Ofuku Daigaku Ekiden Kyoso* inter-university relay marathon on January 2-3, 2011.

TMC has been providing official vehicles for the annual race since 2003, with the aim of supporting the up-and-coming generation through collegiate athletics. As a co-sponsor of the 2011 running, TMC will provide all official vehicles, namely a Prius Plug-in Hybrid support vehicle for each of the 21 participating universities, two "FCHV-adv" fuel-cell vehicles for emergencies and a "Sai" hybrid sedan, as well as a "Vitz" compact and a "Ractis" compact, among other models, for race officials. TMC will also provide 27 drivers.

Toyota-brand dealers at showrooms along the race route will distribute promotional items to spectators, and, at a booth in Hakone, exchange snacks for donations to be given to a local facility for unsupported children.

A Prius Plug-in Hybrid for the relay marathon

*Japan's most well known relay running race for university students, organized by the Inter-University Athletic Union of Kanto. The field comprises 20 teams from universities belonging to the union, including 10 universities seeded through performance in the previous year's race universities that qualified through preliminary competitions and a union invitational team. The race is run over ten sections (217.9 km), comprising five outbound (108 km) and five inbound (109.9 km) sections, between Tokyo and Hakone.