The Auris Hybrid from the Toyota stables is set for a line-off ceremony from Toyota’s production company in the United Kingdom. The first ever hybrid vehicle that is being mass produced in Europe will sail off today from the Toyota Manufacturing, UK (TMUK) assembly line. With sales expected to start with sales on July 1, Toyota intends to take the Auris Hybrid to as many as 32 European nations. The TMUK will be rolling out as many as 30,000 units of the vehicle annually. The TMUK which had come into being way back in 1992 has already recorded a cumulative production of 3 million vehicles this year, going by the June 7 figures.

There’s a new online competition to celebrate the launch of the Auris X, with prizes including R15 000 cash and a PS3. But even if you aren’t out to win the competition is still worth checking out – it’s a challenging and entertaining game that will test your mental agility as you embark on a journey which will see you hunt for Xs all over the internet.

It works like this:

The game is based here, where you will find a map of South Africa. There are Xs all over the internet. You need to find them and then place them on the map you will find on the site, in order to mark your turf and eventually find a hidden Auris X Showroom. For now, you need to do is register and start hunting for those Xs. In case you need some help there are bunch of clues from Buddy the Boxer and his friend Chi Chi the Chihuahua to help you on your way.

The hunt will take you all over the net and even back in time, you will have to answer questions, find clues and play games within the game. Some Xs are easy to find, others will really test your mental strength. The more Xs you use to mark your turf the better your chance at winning prizes worth R30 000 smackeroos!

The prizes are:

1st Prize: R15 000 Cash

2nd Prize PS3 120GB Console

3rd Prize: PSP Black

4th Prize: Apple iPod nano 8GB – Black

5th Prize: Apple iPod Shuffle 2GB

Enjoy the ride, it’ll Xhilarate you! Happy hunting. You never know, there may even be an X hidden somewhere on this page!

But what about the new Auris X?

The Auris X is the next generation Auris, offering a sleeker and more sophisticated driving experience than its predecessors, and it’s also more fuel efficient. The idea is to deliver superb economy with minimal environmental impact, and with 74kW and 132Nm it delivers class-leading performance, along with a whole bunch of extra attention to quality and safety. For more on the Auris X including full specs, go here.

We’ve just finished discussing that the Toyota Camp at Frankfurt will be the place to be for it will debut to couple of impressive full Hybrid cars. The first one to be at the contingent will be the Toyota Auris HSD Full Hybrid Concept which will be company’s first mainstream car deployed with full hybrid technology. Just for the record, full hybrid technology means that the commuter will be able to solely function on the electric engine or the combustion engine or a combination of both. There are not many details available about the electric commuter but what we are speculating is that the Auris too will be good enough to run short distances daily on the electric power for that is what HSD technology implies.

Toyota has finally decided to mass produced its first European C-Segment hybrid variant in the UK. It will be the highly popular Auris that will shun the conventional engine for a greener one and this would happen at a manufacturing plant in Burnaston, in the county of Derbyshire, UK. The production of the car will begin in the middle of 2010 and it will be a full hybrid variant with a lot of UK content.

Toyota is keen to make full hybrids accessible to a larger segment and this development will help foster that approach. The non-hybrid version of the Auris (replaced Corolla) has hit the 370,000 units mark since 2007 and Toyota hopes for a similar achievement once the greener cars start rolling.