Skip to main content

Hot Seat

A Japanese manufacturer of toilets has assembled a trike that is powered by biogas as a promotional tool. This vehicle features a toilet bowl on which the driver sits. The toilet is thankfully not connected and is for aesthetic purposes only. The rm, TOTO, has called its vehicle the ToiletBike Neo Project, which forms part of the TOTO Green Challenge, the rm's aim at reducing CO2 emissions from bathrooms by 50% by 2017, compared with levels recorded in 1990. Other interesting features of the ToiletBike Ne
April 16, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
A Japanese manufacturer of toilets has assembled a trike that is powered by biogas as a promotional tool. This vehicle features a toilet bowl on which the driver sits. The toilet is thankfully not connected and is for aesthetic purposes only. The firm, 4921 TOTO, has called its vehicle the ToiletBike Neo Project, which forms part of the TOTO Green Challenge, the  rm's aim at reducing CO2 emissions from bathrooms by 50% by 2017, compared with levels recorded in 1990. Other interesting features of the ToiletBike Neo include residual light imagery that allows the rider to write messages in the air as it is driven by, while it can play music to entertain spectators. In addition, the toilet is able to talk, with functions including fortune-telling, stock-quote-reading and weather-forecasting. This biogas fuelled and motorised toilet has been driven around Japan as part of the  rm's promotional campaign, presumably by a driver who is not easily embarrassed. 

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • New emissions proposals - lean, clean green construction machines – but at what cost?
    October 3, 2014
    The European Commission has published proposals setting strict limits on exhaust emissions for off-highway machinery. This proposal has major implications for the construction machinery sector and would make the EU exhaust emissions limits the strictest in the world. There has been a call for swift reading of the regulation in Parliament and Council. This long-anticipated proposal for a revision of the directive 97/68/EC, covers exhaust emissions reduction for engines installed in non-road mobile machinery.
  • Connect Plus joins Highways Agency’s plea to drivers to take care through road works
    October 30, 2013
    Connect Plus, the design, build, finance and operating company for southern England’s M25 and its adjoining trunk routes, last week joined with the Highways Agency to convey vital messages to drivers passing through road works. The company, a joint venture consisting of Balfour Beatty, Skanska, Atkins and Egis Projects SA, was participating in the Highways Agency Road Worker Safety Week (21-28 October), which aimed to get across to the public some of the dangers road workers face in their work close to fas
  • The Path to Climate-Neutral Road Construction
    October 1, 2023
    Machine manufacturers and construction companies around the globe are currently searching for ways to achieve the goal of climate-neutral construction. The challenge here is to successively reduce emissions of CO2 and other harmful gases (summarized to CO2 equivalents: CO2e) around the world to zero over the coming decades. In the road construction sector, this transformation is inextricably linked to the improvement and further development of production and working processes. In the future, machines and construction materials will also be assessed based on the climate-harmful emissions arising from their production and use. However, the focus should not be on individual machines, but on the entire process leading up to the finished product – a road. Ultimately, the decisive factor is the emissions generated per kilometer of newly built or rehabilitated road – the “CO2e per work done”.
  • New soil compactor launches from key manufacturers
    May 30, 2013
    Major manufacturers continue to develop new soil compactor models - Mike Woof reports. Innovations in machine design are being seen in the soil compaction sector from a number of major firms. As in other equipment sectors, new engine emissions legislation has played a huge role in driving the latest design changes. Europe, the US and Japan are rolling in the new Tier 4 Final/Stage IV legislation on noise and exhaust emissions which will be phased in across power output classes from the start of January 2014