| Sep 05 | Suzuki to build new auto plant in India (Brisbane Times) |
| Japan's top minicar maker Suzuki Motor Corp. is to build a new auto assembly plant near the Indian capital New Delhi in a bid to meet growing demand in the country, a newspaper reported on Sunday. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., a local subsidiary of Suzuki, plans to construct the new plant in Manesar near its assembly base, with operation scheduled to begin in 2013, the Nikkei business daily said, quoting company sources. |
| Sep 05 | Toyota to launch new range of budget sports cars (Mainichi) |
Toyota Motor Corp. is set to launch a new range of budget sports vehicles in a bid to stimulate stagnant car demand among young drivers.
"We want to offer more cars that are fun to drive and make people think 'Toyota is interesting,'" said Toyota Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada during a press interview held on Sept. 3, adding, "Sales performance is not our primary concern."
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| Sep 02 | Tesla gets sportscar subsidy in Japan (bizjournals.com) |
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| Aug 25 | Prius gets humming device to give pedestrians ears-up (Japan Times) |
 Toyota's Prius hybrid is becoming a little less quiet with a new electronic humming device the automaker hopes answers complaints from pedestrians who can't hear the top-selling car approaching.
The ¥12,600 speaker system, which will be installed under the hood of the third-generation Prius, sets off a whirring sound designed to be about the same noise level as a regular car engine so it isn't annoying, Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday.
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| Aug 05 | Japan's automakers recover but challenges remain (AFP) |
Japan's top automakers reported strong results for the quarter ended June as they reap the benefits of a rebound in global demand, but concerns such as a strong yen cloud their outlook, say analysts.
The top three automakers, Toyota, Honda and Nissan, saw quarterly profits surge on-year as the industry recovers from the lows hit in a financial crisis that forced the companies to scale back production and slash thousands of jobs.
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| Aug 04 | More Hondas are built in U.S. than in Japan (Detroit News) |
| For the first time in its history, Honda Motor Co. built more vehicles in the United States during the April-June quarter than it did in Japan. Honda, the first Japanese company to build a car factory in the United States, said its U.S. output totaled 236,819 vehicles in its fiscal first quarter. It produced 236,559 vehicles in Japan in the same period. Spokesman David Iida confirmed Tuesday that it was the first time that Honda's U.S. vehicle output had exceeded Japan's for a full quarter. |
| Jul 20 | Honda to have plug-in hybrid by 2013 (USA Today) |
 Honda Motor President Takanobu Ito will announce Hond's hybrid and alternative vehicle plans at a news conference on Tuesday -- and they will include both a plug-in hybrid car and an all-electric vehicle in 2013, according the Nikkei business daily in Japan and reported by Reuters.
The paper also said Honda is considering building its Insight and two other hybrids in the U.S. and plans to expand its lineup of hybrids to five or so by 2013. It also said the electric car will roll out first in the U.S., according to the Reuters report.
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| Jul 17 | Toyota, Nissan want bigger slice of the pie in Latin America (Japan Times) |
| Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. will invest a combined $1.2 billion to expand production in Latin America amid growing regional and export demand. Toyota is spending $600 million on a new car plant in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, the company said in a statement, and Nissan is spending the same amount to expand Mexican production to build three new models, Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn said Thursday in Mexico City. |
| Jul 16 | Has Toyota been right all along? (huffingtonpost.com) |
 Were we all wrong about Toyota?
News came this week that the "black boxes" in Toyota and Lexus cars and trucks, which constantly monitor and record every usage aspect of throttle and brake position, vehicle speed, engine temp and much, much more, are showing overwhelmingly that the vehicles involved in "unintended acceleration" accidents were wrecked because drivers were stepping on the gas pedal, not the brake.
Accidents attributed to unintended acceleration have been blamed on sticky throttle pedals, floor mats which held the throttle open, problems with the drive-by-wire system and more.
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| Jul 15 | Toyota prepares new hybrid with best mileage in the world (Asahi) |
 Toyota Motor Corp. plans to roll out as early as December 2011 a hybrid subcompact car with the highest fuel efficiency of any mass-produced, fuel-powered vehicle in the world, sources said.
The planned hybrid hatchback is capable of running about 43 kilometers per liter, over 10 percent more efficient than the automaker's Prius hybrid, whose mileage is currently the top ranked, at 38 kpl, the sources said.
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| Jul 07 | Prius ranks as nation's top car for 14th month (Japan Times) |
 The Prius ranked as the nation's top-selling car in June, clinching the No. 1 spot for the 14th straight month on the back of brisk demand for green vehicles. Toyota Motor Corp. sold 31,876 of the gas-electric hybrids last month, far outnumbering Honda's fuel-efficient Fit, which came in second with 15,955 sales, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said Tuesday.
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| Jun 24 | Honda new hybrid to be cheapest one in Japan (moneycontrol.com) |
| Honda Motor Co 's new hybrid car will cost one fifth less than the cheapest hybrid on the Japanese market, according to a newspaper report a move that may make hybrids low profit margin models for automakers. The new car will cost around 1.5 million yen (USD 16,570), making it the cheapest hybrid in Japan when it goes on sale this autumn, the Nikkei business daily said. It will cost about 400,000 yen less than the Insight, Honda's other hybrid offering, and about 200,000 yen more than Honda's popular gasoline-powered Fit compact car, it said. |
| May 20 | Japan loves the hybrid, sales twice as high as U.S. (autoblog.com) |
 First, a bit of a shocker for those who don't follow the Japanese auto market: the Toyota Prius is the top-seller in Japan, period. You don't have to add a disclaimer to that one and no, it's not just the best-selling hybrid; the Prius has been the nations overall top-seller for almost a year now. Rising fuel costs, high incentives and a large selection of available models have contributed to increased sales of hybrids in Japan.
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| May 14 | Japanese town to test solar-to-electric cars (CNET) |
 A Japanese town near Tokyo is about to become a test community for cars that run mainly on solar energy, several companies announced Wednesday.
Through a partnership with Mazda, Think Global, EnerDel, and Japanese conglomerate Itochu among others, Tsukuba City will be testing cars that rely on solar-generated electricity for their batteries, which will be rapid-charged at stations at local FamilyMart stores.
Mazda2 vehicles (known as the Mazda Demio in Japan) have been outfitted with all-electric drive trains made by Think containing EnerDel lithium ion batteries.
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| May 14 | Suzuki to make plug-in hybrids using Sanyo batteries (BusinessWeek) |
| Suzuki Motor Corp., Japan's second-largest minicar maker, plans to introduce a plug-in hybrid version of its Swift compact car using batteries supplied by Sanyo Electric Co., the automaker said. Suzuki dealerships in Japan will test 60 units of the car in the second half of this year. The vehicle runs 15 kilometers on a fully charged battery and will have a 0.66 liter engine to generate electricity. |
| May 10 | Toyota to roll first hydrogen fuel car by 2015 in US, expected price $50000 (infocera.com) |
 Toyota may soon become the first company to introduce hydrogen fuel cell vehicle at a very affordable price tag. This hydrogen cell vehicle is going to be a sedan but the company has doubts pertaining to the availability of hydrogen fuel stations which are very less and the price of the fuel which is more than gasoline at present. However the range of this sedan will be equal to the car powered by gasoline. Toyota is hopeful to develop the first retail hydrogen model at about $50,000 and strives to sell it as an affordable model in the U.S by 2015.
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| May 08 | Subaru Legacy named Japan's safest car (theautochannel.com) |
 The 2010 Subaru Legacy has been officially named 'Japan's safest car', after being awarded the Grand Prix 09/10 in Japan's New Car Assessment Programme (JNCAP).
This is the third consecutive year in which a Subaru vehicle has taken the jury's top honours. Following in the footsteps of the Impreza in 2007 and the Forester in 2008, the Subaru Legacy was the only vehicle out of the 17 tested to receive the coveted award.
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| Apr 06 | Nissan, Renault near Daimler deal (Japan Times) |
| Nissan Motor Co. and French partner Renault SA are drawing close to a capital tieup agreement with Germany's Daimler AG that may be concluded by the end of this week, sources said Monday. "The talks could move during the week," a senior Nissan official said. |
| Apr 06 | Toyota Prius tops Japan's March auto sales (AP) |
 Toyota's Prius hybrid was Japan's top-selling car in March for an 11th straight month despite global recall woes, an industry group said Tuesday.
Toyota Motor Corp., reeling after recalls over issues that included braking problems with the Prius, sold 35,546 units of the gas-electric vehicle in Japan last month, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association. Consumers were choosing the Prius with the help of tax breaks and government subsidies for environmentally friendly vehicles, Miyake said.
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| Apr 02 | Mitsubishi to refocus on energy, environment (Asahi) |
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. will increase its stake in environmental and energy fields, starting by doubling its investments in energy-efficient power semiconductors this fiscal year, according to Kenichiro Yamanishi, the new president and CEO.
Yamanishi, 59, a former senior executive officer, took up the post Thursday, succeeding Setsuhiro Shimomura, who became chairman.
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| Apr 02 | Ghosn: Nissan-Renault open to new alliesGhosn: Nissan-Renault open to new allies (Asahi) |
The Nissan-Renault SA alliance is willing to forge cross-shareholding agreements with other companies to gain an edge in developing vehicles and probing new markets, Carlos Ghosn, president of Nissan Motor Co., said.
In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun on Wednesday, Ghosn also expressed his intention to continue serving four more years as Nissan president, a position he will have held for a decade this June.
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| Apr 01 | Early price war for electric cars (Asahi) |
Seeking an early foothold in a new market, two Japanese automakers slashed prices of their electric vehicles, which will cost buyers less than 3 million yen ($32,000) if government incentives are applied.
Nissan Motor Co. on Tuesday unveiled the Leaf, its new electric compact car that is slated to hit the market in December, with a minimum price tag of 3.76 million yen.
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| Mar 31 | Mitsubishi cuts price tag on electric car as EV price war with Nissan looms (Mainichi) |
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. announced Tuesday that it has slashed the price of its i-MiEV electric car to below 3 million yen in a bid to compete against rival Nissan Motor Co.
The automaker has decided to cut the price of its i-MiEV rechargeable compact by 370,000 yen to 2.84 million yen ahead of its scheduled general release in April -- about 150,000 yen cheaper than Nissan Motor Co.'s Leaf electric car. Nissan announced earlier the same day that it will start selling its new Leaf electric vehicle (EV) with a price tag of 2.99 million yen in December this year.
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| Mar 31 | Toyota takes steps to improve image (Japan Times) |
| With its reputation severely damaged by safety issues, Toyota Motor Corp. announced several steps Tuesday to improve its image, including the establishment of a panel of regional and local quality-control executives that will call the shots on recalls and other steps. The committee, which held its first meeting Tuesday, will also share global information on claims, defects and recalls more speedily, Toyota said. |
| Mar 31 | Nissan's electric car to sell for 3.76 mil. yen (Yomiuri) |
| Nissan Motor Co. said Tuesday it will begin selling its Leaf electric vehicle in December priced at 3.76 million yen. The automaker, which will begin taking orders for the car Thursday, also said the car can be purchased for 2.99 million yen including the expected state subsidy for eco cars of 770,000 yen. |
| Mar 27 | Toyota to Halt Production in France and UK (FOXBusiness) |
| Toyota Motor Corp. (TM: 80.76, 0.48, 0.6%) announced Friday that it will be halting production at factories in France and the UK for at least 12 days as demand softens. Production will be halted from April 6-9 at the Toyota factory in France, and also sometime in late April, Dow JOnes reported. In the UK, production will come to a standstill from next Monday to Thursday and also April 6-9. The planned halt in production in France and the UK will coincide with a production adjustment at two Toyota facilities in the U.S. for two weeks in March and April. The halt in the U.S. was put in place in order to prevent the build-up of inventory after the recent recalls. |
| Mar 25 | Suzuki makes million cars in India (Japan Times) |
| Suzuki Motor Corp.'s subsidiary in India turned out more than one million cars in the business year ending March 31 for the first time since it began production in 1983, the maker of minicars said Wednesday. The fiscal 2009 production figure represents an increase of about 30 percent from a year earlier for Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., which controls about half of the Indian car market. |
| Mar 24 | Toyoda unveils plan to name officer for quality control for Europe (Mainichi) |
| Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda, spearheading efforts to regain consumer trust in the quality of Toyota vehicles following a string of safety problems, unveiled a plan on Tuesday to appoint an officer to ensure the quality of the company's cars sold in Europe. Toyoda, on a European visit, told employees at the automaker's European headquarters in Brussels that Europe "is strategically a very important battlefield" for Toyota in seeking to fend off competition from other carmakers, officials at the headquarters said. |
| Mar 17 | Honda racked up 7,000 orders in Japan for its new CR-Z sporty hybrid (autospies.com) |
 Honda Motor Co.'s new CR-Z sporty hybrid went on sale starting Feb. 25 but already, there have been 7,000 orders received in Japan. This figure is more than half of Honda's target of 12,000 units each year in its home market.
This many orders mean that there is a three-month waiting time for delivery in Japan. In the US, the model will arrive at showrooms this summer. The two-seater CR-Z is equipped with a 1.5-liter gasoline engine that's mated to an electric motor, resulting to a fuel economy of 36/38 mpg. Honda forecasts sales of 15,000 units in North America annually.
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| Mar 04 | Small is beautiful: Japan's hand-made electric cars (AFP) |
 While auto manufacturing giants spend millions to develop environmentally-friendly electric cars, one Japanese company has taken a more low-key approach, crafting hand-made "green" cars.
Takeoka Jidosha Kogei may be the antithesis of the world's Hondas and Nissans. The family-run business makes its cars from scratch in a garage workshop in the snowy foothills in the northwest of the country.
There are no industrial robots or assembly lines in sight. Instead just a dozen mechanics crafting each model by hand, right up to the finishing touch of adding a set of beady headlights to their "Milieu" range.
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| Feb 26 | Honda launches world's first sporty hybrid car (Japan Times) |
 Honda Motor Co. on Thursday rolled out the CR-Z, the world's first hybrid sports car. The car, which will hit domestic showrooms Friday ahead of its global launch, comes with an electric motor equivalent to 1.5 liters and a 2.0-liter gasoline engine for acceleration. Its fuel efficiency is rated at 25 km per liter, compared with about 12 for similar gas-powered Honda models.
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| Feb 18 | Here comes the electric Nissan Leaf (CNN) |
 Carlos Ghosn -- in shirtsleeves -- walks briskly into a conference room on the 21st floor of Nissan's global headquarters in Yokohama, Japan. Awaiting his arrival are 15 executives in two ranks of chairs. Subject of the meeting: how to spread the news about Ghosn's pet electric-car project.
His communications staff wants a traditional publicity campaign to build excitement, but Ghosn (rhymes with "phone") has other ideas. He believes that Nissan has a headstart over the rest of the industry -- and he doesn't want to tip his hand.
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| Feb 17 | MMC plans ¥800,000 fuel-stingy compact (Japan Times) |
| Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is considering setting the price of its new fuel-efficient compact car at around ¥800,000, well under the roughly ¥1 million for the lowest-priced cars now available on the market, sources said. The automaker is planning to build the car, which is set for release next year, at low-cost plants in Thailand and China and to supply it to carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen, which is looking to forge capital ties with Mitsubishi Motors, for sale under the French automaker's nameplate, the sources said. |
| Feb 02 | Japan leads the race for a hydrogen fuel-cell car (csmonitor.com) |
 It may still sound like science fiction to some. But Japan is taking a lead in making zero-emissions hydrogen-fueled cars a reality.
It's part of the country's aspiration to cut its carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050; nearly a quarter of those emissions come from transportation. And it's a more urgent task in a country that imports all of its oil.
Japan leads Asia in early hydrogen-car infrastructure and is a world-beater in emerging fuel cell technologies.
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| Jan 30 | Why are Toyota gas pedals sticking? It's complicated (Japan Times) |
| For a century, the basic idea behind pressing the accelerator on a car has been pretty straightforward. What's going wrong with some Toyotas isn't simple. Experts say the sudden acceleration problem that has put the brakes on Toyota sales and production is likely not a single problem but an alignment of complicated interconnected conditions. |
| Jan 26 | Revolutionary electric vehicle to hit the road (Yomiuri) |
 A start-up company has begun developing an electric car that has motors in each of its wheels, a breakthrough that could enable the car to travel 300 kilometers per charge, up to twice as far as some other electric vehicles using the same batteries.
The vehicle with the unique energy-saving "in-wheel motor" technology could go into mass-production in 2013.
According to Sim-Drive, the company established by Keio University Prof. Hiroshi Shimizu and others, 34 companies and organizations--including Mitsubishi Motors Corp., Isuzu Motors Ltd., a battery maker and local governments--have invested 680 million yen in the project.
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| Jan 24 | 2010 Subaru Forester: A study in reliability (Washington Post) |
 Sometimes you just want reliability -- a simple vehicle that does what it does well and does it repeatedly. You want the fossil-fueled version of the Timex. The watch is seldom fancy or pretty. It can be bought for a reasonable price at the local drugstore. But it will last as long as many more expensive timepieces, and it will keep time as well, often better, than many of them. The Timex watch exemplifies its marketing slogan: It "keeps on ticking."
The Subaru Forester is the Timex of the automobile industry. First manufactured in Japan in 1997 and brought to the United States a year later, it has grown in popularity in regions such as this, places where winter can be truly wintry and where foothills actually lead to mountains.
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| Jan 22 | Mazda to unveil Mazda5 at 2010 Geneva Motor Show (automotive-business-review.com) |
 Mazda Motor is going to unveil its new Mazda5 (known as Mazda Premacy in Japan) at 2010 Geneva Motor Show on March 2 and 3, 2010. The new Mazda5 emits approximately 15% less CO2 than the current model due to it's i-stop idling stop system, a direct injection gasoline engine and other technologies. The new Mazda5 will be the first Mazda production model to fully adopt the company's Nagare (meaning 'flow' in Japanese) design language.
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| Jan 08 | Toyota's Prius top-selling car in Japan last year (AP) |
 The Toyota Prius was the top-selling car in Japan last year - the first time a gas-electric hybrid has clinched that spot.
The Japan Automobile Dealers Association said Friday that Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius was No. 1 in its ranking of sales by vehicle models - with 208,876 Prius cars sold in 2009, nearly three times the numbers sold the previous year.
The big success of the Prius in the home market for Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, highlights the growing consumer acceptance of green vehicles.
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| Jan 08 | Subaru launches special edition Impreza R205 in Japan (automobilemag.com) |
 Good news for those living in Japan: if you managed let either of the last two special-edition Subaru Impreza WRX STI models slip through your fingers, there's another version headed your way: the Impreza R205.
Although the "R" in "R205" reportedly stands for "Road Sport," it may as well stand for "racetrack." R205 models receive several suspension upgrades, all of which were tested by STI engineers during the 2009 Nurburgring 24-hour race. R205 models receive inverted strut and coil springs for the front suspension, along with revised dampers and coil springs out back. The front suspension also receives a strut tower bar, a lower arm brace, and a stabilizer bar.
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| Jan 06 | Japan brings 'car wars' to India (expressbuzz.com) |
 Global automakers lined up their global launches at the 10th Auto Expo here to vie for their share of Indian auto market and break the hold of local players in one of the fastest growing markets in the world.
Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen and General Motors unveiled new compact car models. Honda Siel Cars India announced the world premiere of the New Honda Small Concept.
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| Jan 01 | Toyota tops record year for safety recalls (USA Today) |
 When it comes to vehicle trouble bad enough to require a recall, Toyota isn't the automaker that would normally come to mind. Except this year.
For the first time, Toyota led the U.S. auto industry in recalled vehicles -- the vast majority of them involving those accelerators that Toyota says are jamming under floor mats. The Japanese automaker put 4.3 million Toyota and Lexus models under recall last year.
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| Dec 30 | Mazda may replace RX-8 with a new 2-door RX-7 for 2012 (nitrobahn.com) |
 Its been rumoured that we can expect the resurrection of the Mazda RX-7 sometime in 2011. It is true that we've been hearing these stories telling us that we should expect the rotary engine powered sports car any day now and the car's still yet to reveal its smiling face, but this time, it looks like it is the real deal. Here we have reports from Japan indicating that the next RX-7 may be just around the corner. That is excellent news, isn't it? Maybe not so, for Mazda RX-8.
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| Dec 22 | Subaru's turbocharged sales secret (CNN) |
 Subaru, the car brand of choice for quirky, all-wheel-drive loving Northeasterners and trendy turbo freaks, is on something of a tear.
Considering Subaru's record breaking sales at a time when others are struggling to unload cars, the number four Japanese brand in America is doing downright great. Most of the credit goes to recent upgrades made to three of Subaru's five model lines. Those upgrades reflect a renewed focus on America.
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| Dec 15 | Toyota rolls out its plug-in Prius (Japan Times) |
 Toyota Motor Corp. unveiled on Monday the plug-in version of the latest Prius gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle with extended range when it runs on electricity. Toyota plans to lease out 600 of the plug-in hybrids to governments and corporations in Japan, the United States and Europe and gain feedback.
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| Dec 03 | Sanyo wins first lithium-ion car battery customers (NewsWeek) |
| Sanyo Electric, the world's biggest maker of rechargeable batteries, has won at least two customers for its lithium-ion batteries to fuel plug-in hybrid vehicles, an executive said. The company will start supplying the batteries to automakers, including a Japanese and a foreign carmaker, as early as in the latter half of 2011. |
| Dec 01 | Hyundai leaving Japanese market on weak sales (motortrend.com) |
 Unlike in the rest of the world's major markets, Hyundai's vehicle sales in Japan have done so poorly that the automaker will retreat from the region, Automotive News reports.
In the eight years that it's been in Japan, Hyundai has only sold 15,095 units. Yes, you read that correctly. Comparatively, the country's best-selling import car brand, Volkswagen, sold 61,996 vehicles in 2008 alone.
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| Nov 16 | Nissan Leaf included in Time Magazine's 50 best inventions of 2009 (allcarselectric.com) |
 Nissan changed the game for automakers planning electric vehicles in August when it unveiled the Leaf. The all-electric C-segment vehicle travels at speeds up to 90 miles per hour and goes 100 miles on a full charge. Nissan says it will only take 30 minutes to charge the batteries to 80% of their capacity at a high-power charging station. The Leaf is expected to sell for between $35,000 and $45,000.
The car won't hit production lines until the fall of 2010, but that didn't stop Time Magazine from calling it one of the best inventions of 2009.
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| Nov 11 | 3 fuel cell cars begin 1,100-km demonstration run (Kyodo) |
 Fuel cell-powered vehicles from Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. leave the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Tokyo on Nov. 11, 2009, for a 1,100-kilometer run to Fukuoka to demonstrate that they can go as far as gasoline-powered cars on a single fueling. Toyota's FCHV-adv, Nissan's X-Trail FCV and Honda's FCX Clarity will be used in the event.
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| Oct 30 | Gloom in Japan (Bangkok Post) |
 This year's Tokyo Motor Show is feeling the effects of the global economic crisis as the number of novelties and the amount of exhibition space has shrunk for the first time in 20 years. Now in its 41st iteration, Asia's foremost car show is attempting to reel off the impact with eco-friendly cars deemed necessary for the next decade when CO2 legislation becomes even more stringent.
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