Japanese Auto Industry News

08/26/96

Nissan Autoparts Affiliates to Up Mexican Output

Nikkei English News has reported that Parts manufacturers affiliated with Nissan Motor Co. will add capacity to Mexican plants. The part makers will try to fill the demands of Nissan Mexicana S.A. de C.V. when it assumes North American production of the Sentra in 1998.

Starting in early 1997, Calsonic Corporation will build a 5 billion yen factory to make air conditioners, heaters, mufflers and radiators. Production at the plant is scheduled to begin at the end of 1998.

Tachi-S Company, a car seat supplier, will invest 500-600 million yen to enhance its production lines for sewing, resin molding and final assembly. The change will enable the plant to double its car seat production to seats for 200,000 cars a year.

Nissan's Mexican operation currently assembles 80,000 Sentras a year. Once production is transferred from Nissan's U.S. subsidiary to Nissan Mexicana in 1998, however, the plant will crank out 250,000 of the subcompact cars annually.

Toyota Markets Remodeled Windom

Nikkei English News reported that Toyota Motor Corporation released a completely redesigned Windom in Japan on Wednesday. The new car has an anti-lock braking system and dual front-seat airbags. The deluxe 3.0G model with a 3,000cc engine and four-speed automatic transmission costs 3.46 million yen. Toyota hopes to sell 3,000 of the cars a month, which is 50% more cars than it sold in 1995.

The company claims the new model has greatly improved fuel efficiency because of a lighter body and its newly developed 2,500cc and 3,000cc engines. Higher-grade Windoms come equipped with an automatic electronically controlled shock absorber system to improve driving comfort.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel