This text is a continuation of an article published earlier in September. Read it here! Having already covered almost half of the 2,000-kilometre Toyota road-trip across the Prairies, I finally asked myself the question: has the Japanese manufacturer really been with us for 60 years? Well, yes, in a way it has. In its early days, it was a group of industry professionals called Canadian Motor Industries, Ltd (CMI). Founded in 1964, it delivered an impressive... 755 units.
Today, Toyota Canada sells that number every day, but at the time, this success was impressive. Toyota and Isuzu models soon began to be manufactured in Canada, but it was thanks to the founding of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) and its Ontario plant that production took off. The proof: the latest vehicle we tested was a Toyota Rav4, the 11 millionth to roll off the production line. Nothing less!
Stopover in Edmonton
To begin the second part of our trip, we took the wheel of the new-generation Toyota Land Cruiser. It's more comfortable than the Tacoma I told you about last time, but in my opinion, it's still a bit heavy-handed and not very dynamic. It benefits from the same kind of technology as its compatriots, i.e. an infotainment system that I particularly appreciate, but also a set of safety technologies that were very useful to us on the sometimes boring roads of the Prairies.
It turned out that our choice of vehicle was particularly well-suited to our next stop: the Ens Toyota dealership, which has the particularity of building Land Cruisers adapted to mine work itself. Sturdier, bigger and equipped with a host of practical tools for life underground, you're unlikely to come across one on the road! After a stopover near Saskatoon at the Wanuskewin Interpretation Centre, a superb introduction to the region's aboriginal cultures, we headed for Edmonton. Once again, several hundred kilometers awaited us, but it was all worth it. After changing vehicles again, this time in the Camry, I remembered why I prefer sedans: their agility and the pleasure of driving them.
Hydrogen and Calgary
Before leaving for our final destination, the great city of Calgary, we still had a few activities left. The theme of the day: hydrogen. First stop: the laboratories of Dark Matter Materials, a company that promises to revolutionize the world of hydrogen. Without going into too much detail, their unique catalyst will make it possible to produce hydrogen more cheaply and efficiently. As you can easily understand, this is a giant step in the right direction when it comes to moving away from fossil fuels. Edmonton airport is also on board, using Toyota Mirais in its daily operations and planning to convert its heavy machinery to run partly on hydrogen.
After this vision of the future, we got back behind the wheel of our RAV4, the very one I mentioned earlier, to reach Calgary, the final point of our escapade. An efficient SUV, but nothing more, the RAV4 was by far the least technologically advanced of the lot. It's also the least expensive, I might add. Despite its unremarkable ride, we arrived at our destination without having consumed too much fuel, and in one piece. It's fair to say that the RAV4 did more than enough to get us to the end of our five-day trip.
