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A U T O N E W S

DAILY REPORTS

Jan 18

James Bond getaway car gets new lease on life

For a former James Bond car, it's a chance to live twice. Japanese engineers put a new spin on an old classic car for a recent auto show, remodeling a Toyota 2000GT with solar panels and high-tech gadgets to make it 100 percent electric and solar-powered. Heralded as Japan's first sports car when it came out in 1967, the vehicle was used in the James Bond movie "You Only Live Twice," released that same year, as a getaway car for the intrepid Bond, played by Sean Connery. But the new eco-friendly version comes with a catch -- it takes nearly two weeks for the vehicle to power up completely. (Reuters

)

Jan 16

Honda to build NSX 'supercar' in Ohio

With one announcement last week at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Honda surprised auto industry observers in at least two ways. First, the automaker is resurrecting the rare-but-beloved Acura NSX "supercar." And second, the new NSX will be designed and built in Ohio, not Japan, where the model's previous iteration was built from 1990 to 2005. Already, preliminary development work for the NSX has been handed off from Japan to Honda's Center of Research and Development in Raymond, Ohio, about 140 miles northeast of Dayton, a Honda spokesman said. (Channel NewsAsia

)

Jan 11

Toyota Prius Japan top-selling car for third year

The Prius gas-electric hybrid was Japan's top-selling vehicle in 2011 for the third straight year, underlining how the ecological car has scored a big hit. Sales of Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius totaled 252,528 vehicles in 2011, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said Wednesday. The Fit subcompact from Japanese rival Honda Motor Co., which also comes in hybrid models, was No. 2. Government-backed incentives and tax breaks have lifted the sales of ecological models despite a sluggish Japanese auto market. (AP)

Jan 05

Japanese automakers say goodbye to disaster-filled 2011

The big Japanese automakers are happy to see 2011 in their rear-view mirrors. The Detroit auto companies posted a double-digit sales increase for the year, but the big Japanese brands -- especially Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. -- were hamstrung by a series of natural disasters. First, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March hit, and then, later in the year, flooding closed parts suppliers in Thailand, disrupting their global auto manufacturing and leaving them with too few cars for the American market. Toyota saw its sales fall 6.7% to 1.6 million vehicles last year. Its sales in December grew by just a few hundred vehicles to 178,131 compared with the same month a year earlier. Honda's annual sales fell 6.8% to 1.1 vehicles. Its December sales fell 19% to 105,230 vehicles. (Los Angeles Times)

Dec 27

Toyota releases Aqua compact hybrid in Japan

Toyota Motor Corp. on Monday began selling in Japan the Aqua compact hybrid vehicle, which it claims has the world's best fuel economy. The vehicle is equipped with a new 1.5-liter hybrid system and gets 35.4 kilometers per liter under a new testing method close to actual driving conditions, Toyota said. The automaker has reduced the weight of the hybrid system by more than 40 kilograms compared to its Prius system, it said. Priced from 1.69 million yen, Toyota said it aims to sell 12,000 of the vehicles per month within Japan, and eventually to begin selling it in approximately 50 other countries including the United States. (Mainichi

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Jan 10 Japanese set for rare downbeat Detroit car show (Reuters)

Jan 10 Akio Toyoda to become president of Toyota (Yomiuri)

Jan 08 Japan races to build a zero-emission car (AFP)

Jan 06 Suzuki freezes plan to develop 3.6L 'Kizashi' sedan (MarketWatch)

Jan 05 Auto slump has deep impact on Japan (Wall Street Journal)

(Reuters) - THIS PICTURE IS 7 OF 25 TO ACCOMPANY INSIGHT "ELECTRIC-CAR/BIG OIL". SEARCH IN YOUR PICTURE SYSTEM FOR KEYWORD "ELECTRIC VEHICLES" TO SEE ALL IMAGES. (PXP310-334) Charging lots for electric cars are seen inside a car park in Hong Kong January 29, 2012. Many of the headlines out of autoshows in the past couple of years have been captured by the launch of electric cars such as Nissan's Leaf, the Tesla sports car, plug-ins like General Motors' Chevrolet Volt, and the latest incarnation of the Toyota Prius. Other manufacturers including BMW, Rolls Royce and Porsche have presented electric-powered prototypes. On the basis of this, one could be forgiven for thinking the auto industry is betting big on electric power. Yet few auto executives share the optimism of Renault and Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn who has repeatedly said he sees electric vehicles making up 10 percent of all sales in 2020. A survey of 200 auto industry executives conducted by KPMG released on Monda...