Auto News From Japan - July 2002
Daily News---July 2002
July 15, 2002Toyota and Daihatsu decide upon joint development in IndonesiaOn the 11th, Toyota and Daihatsu announced that in 2003 they will start sales and production of their first jointly developed car in Indonesia. They intend to reinforce world strategies as the Toyota group. The joint developed model will be based on a 1 liter Daihatsu pickup truck. It will be produced at Astra Daihatsu Motor (based in Jakarta) with an annual production of 8,000 units. Since money crisis in 1997, the Indonesian car market has been showing weak performance. Toyota plans to strengthen support for Daihatsu to increase operational ratio of their Asian plants and started sales and production of Daihatsu models in Pakistan in March 2000 and likewise in Venezuela in November 2001. In the overseas market, Daihatsu lags behind Suzuki, their major competitor, for subcompacts. Daihatsu and Toyota plan to further strengthen cooperation in the global market.Honda tries to achieve 1 million unit sales by FY2004In a mid-term business plan (ending in FY2004), Honda has set a 1 million unit sales for automobiles in Japan. They have also decided to continue selling both small cars and minivans through all three sales channels. They initially planned that three dealers will handle different models in order to emphasize characteristics of each dealer. However, they have concluded that selling both models through the all three channels is necessary to achieve their sales target. This year, they plan to increase domestic new car sales by 7 percent to 920,000 units. In 2003, they are scheduled to introduce and conduct full model changes to more than 20 new models.Honda forecasts to achieve profitability in EuropeOn the 10th, Honda Motor Europe President, Minoru Harada revealed that they will achieve profitability in the European market next fiscal year (April 2003 to March 2004). They have been experiencing weak sales in the market. Although they said that they will not be affected by an UK's decision (whether to adopt euro or not), they think that a 15 percent decline of pound exchange rate against euro will be needed to achieve profitability. Because of export declines from the UK to European continent resulted by pound appreciation, their net deficits expanded to 330 million euros last fiscal year. They have set an 8 percent sales increase (190,000 units) for this fiscal year and an additional 10 percent increase for next fiscal year.Toyota to aggressively reflect user requests at planning stageToyota has started a new marketing method that periodically collect opinions and comments from specified users who are chosen for evaluations and reflect them during development stage. With the new method, staff in the development division can directly understand what users want them to include in specifications. At the same time, they can improve product quality. The new method was first adopted for the Probox and Succeed, commercial vehicles introduced on July 2. They also plan to collect opinions even after introductions of products. For the Probox and Succeed, Toyota chose people for evaluations from shop owners and corporations who use the Corolla van and Cardina van. They held meetings with them and exchange opinions. Toyota has also succeeded in shortening development period after design decision to less than 12 months. They plan to take advantage of a combination of the new marketing and development methods in order to quickly respond to user needs.Yokohama Rubber and Toyo Rubber to jointly produce seamless tiresOn the 11th, Yokohama Rubber and Toyo Rubber announced that they will begin mass-production of seamless tires using the technology of Fuji Seiko who makes bead wires. The joint developed tires will be supplied to Toyota this summer. The technology by Fuji Seiko simplifies production procedures and downsizes tire components with seamless technology while increasing production accuracy and product quality. Yokohama Rubber and Toyo Rubber have been trying to develop a new mass-produced tire with Fuji Seiko's technology and support from Toyota. The two companies plan to provide low-cost tires to Toyota to expand sales.JAIA to request importers to thoroughly collect and destruct FreonIn line with an implementation of car air conditioning freon collection and destruction law on October 1, JAIA plans to have their member importers to abide by the new law. The new law will require automakers and importers to retrieve freon from their vehicles. JAIA members (official importers) are not basically obliged to retrieve freon from parallel or individually imported vehicles. However, it is difficult to distinguish whether those are parallel import vehicles or imported through official importers when collected. JAIA thinks that it is necessary to avoid confusions in order to enforce new regulations by imposing their importers to collect and destruct freon from their vehicles regardless of how they are imported.July 12, 2002Honda increase production of engines and transmissions in AsiaOn the 10th, Honda announced that they will increase drive line parts, including engine parts and transmissions in other Asian countries. They plan to establish a new company in Indonesia (PT Honda Precision Parts Manufacturing) and expand their current subsidiary in the Philippines (Honda parts Manufacturing). They plan to export parts to their other overseas plants in Europe. This autumn, they will start supplying engine parts from their Chinese plant to UK plant. They will invest 8 billion yen into PT Honda Precision Parts Manufacturing and it is scheduled to start operation with 900 employees in autumn 2003. Their products will include automatic transmissions, CVT's and engine valves. In their first year, they will start production of automatic transmissions for the Accord and CR-V with 2 liter 4 cylinder engines. In 2004, they plan to include CVT's for compact cars and achieve annual production of 250,000 units (for both automatic transmissions and CVT's). Their 2004 production target for engine valves is 550,000 units. At Honda Parts Manufacturing in the Philippines, they will start production of manual transmissions in July with new facilities, in which they invested 2.1 billion yen. In autumn 2003, they plan to achieve production capacity of 140,000 units. In addition, they are scheduled to export crankshafts and connecting rods produced at Dongfeng Honda Automobile Parts to the UK for the CR-V.Nippon Light Metal supplies aluminum alloy developed for the Mazda AtenzaNippon Light Metal revealed on the 11th that they started supplying newly developed aluminum alloy starting with engines for the Mazda Atenza (Mazda 6). Their aluminum alloy is adopted for cylinder heads and cylinder blocks of the Atenza by using Cosworth casting process. Their total annual production of the aluminum alloy is expected to reach 12,000 tons. They have accumulated alloy casting data and tried to achieve the most suitable additive volume in order to meet Mazda's needs. By taking advantage of supply contract to Mazda, they intend to aggressively expand sales of the aluminum alloy to other companies.Tokiko to expand parts production in ChinaTokiko plans to expand parts production in China and establish plants in southern part of China. In 1998, they entered the market with their first Chinese plant, Faw & Tokico Shock Absorber. One of the new plants is scheduled to produce brake calipers for Nissan. The plant site will be decided by October. Other plants are expected to produce suspensions, brake parts, flow meters, isolation valves and small compressors for Japanese automakers in China.Hollowing out of the domestic parts industry leaves problemsExpansion of Japanese parts makers to China is expected to bring serious conditions in Japan. An increasing number of Japanese companies have shifted production to China, where labor costs are much lower, in order to keep up with aggressive cost reduction requests by automakers. In response to this condition, Japan Auto Parts Industries Association set up a study group in April to research the current movement and their affects. At this moment, most of their production in China will be exported to Japan due to a low car demand there. According to one parts maker, they can cut costs by 30 percent in China, including transportation costs. Parts makers in the Toyota and Honda group, who are enjoying strong sales in Japan, said that they are not worried about hollowing-out. On the other hand, independent makers expect domestic production will decline to 50 percent (from the current 80 percent) in order to respond to automaker's moves in the global market. There are a few companies like NIDEC Tokok who moved most of their mass-production products to Vietnam while shifted semiconductor related production to Japan to avoid hollowing-out. Although most companies think that it is necessary to develop products that has very high quality and added value to exceed merits of Chinese production, they also think that they have their hands full just to survive in the current fierce cost competitionDaihatsu develops "Intelligent catalyst"On the 11th, Daihatsu announced that they have developed an "Intelligent catalyst" that can greatly reduce deterioration while decreasing precious metal amount by 70 percent. In the "Intelligent catalyst", palladium functions as metal ions entering Perovskite crystal structure during high temperature and becomes metal particles during catalytic reduction. The new catalyst has higher efficiency than their TOPAZ catalyst, commercialized last year. Daihatsu plans to use the catalyst for their subcompact next year.July 9, 2002Mitsubishi to consolidate model namesMitsubishi plans to consolidate model names for the global market. The Pajero is currently sold under the name of the Montero in the US, the Diamante is the Magna/Verada in Australia and Mirage with three doors is the Mirage Coupe in the US and Colt in Europe. Mitsubishi has been conducting different sales methods in each country. In the latest business plan, "Turnaround Plan", they are trying to establish a consolidated brand image in the global market and they are proceeding with a world strategy in cooperation with DaimlerChrysler. At the same time, they plan to concentrate on motor sports, including Paris Dakar Rally, in the global market as part of their sales strategy.Suzuki to establish a 1 million unit production systemSuzuki is scheduled to establish a 1 million car production system by the end of this year in Japan. This April, they started operation of the third production line at Kosai plant. They plan to increase production capacity from the current 77,000 units monthly to 80,000 units. They will also increase working days and hours to achieve 1 million annual production. Since April, demand for the MR wagon and Alto Lapin has been increasing. In addition, Nissan requests increases in OEM procurement of the MR wagon and supplies to Mazda have also increased. In the mid-term business plan, starting this year, they are targeting 2 trillion yen consolidated sales.Toyota and Daihatsu to strengthen cooperation for used car salesToyota and Daihatsu have decided to use their current dealers each other for used cars in order to cover losses from new car sales. In Japan, trade-in specialized companies dominate the used car market. Toyota has been expanding used car sales network and set up large-scale retail site. Because of the popularity of subcompacts in the market, Toyota is strengthening ties with Daihatsu. On the other hand, Daihatsu doesn't operate used car specific dealers, and most used cars are displayed together alongside new cars. To date for used car sales, the two companies have only cooperated with used car auctions. They also plan to lower prices for trade-in evaluations to lure new car buyers.Hino to form an alliance with Maxwell TechnologiesHino plans to form an alliance with Maxwell Technologies for capacitors for hybrid vehicles. The new product will be applied to hybrid route buses. Through the alliance, Hino intends to reduce costs while increasing competitiveness. Nissan Diesel has already developed and applied capacitors to a mid-size hybrid truck. However, sticker price for the trucks is about 9 million yen higher than its base model. Hino has developed a system having advantages of both parallel and series hybrid system. According to Hino, the combination of their hybrid system and the capacitor will achieve high fuel efficiency, 1.8 times the current diesel buses, and greatly cut emissions.Daido Metal to expand bearing production for the European marketDaido Metal will increase production of bearings in Europe. They are scheduled to expand production capacity of their new Yugoslavian plant (established in April). For the time being, they will export bearings from Japan. Their bearing technology has received high commendation by European automakers and they will expand OEM supplies to five European automakers. The new plant will produce a wide range of products from automobile parts to industry equipment. Monthly production capacity for bearings is 30,000 to 50,000 units. Daido Metal currently has very little sales in Europe but by 2007 they plan to achieve 100 million unit sales, equivalent to 5 billion yen. This year, they also plan to establish a new company in Germany to manage and consolidate their European business.Dealers to request Toyota for 4WD versionsNetz Toyota dealers have announced that they will request Toyota that they should include a 4WD lineup for the Altezza. In exchange of a cancellation of the Chaser, Toyota added a 6 speed manual transmission version and wagon type (Gita) for the Altezza in 1998. Last year, they also introduced a 4WD type for the Gita and other sedan lineup. However, these sales have not increased as expected (8,500 unit sales for the 4WD Gita in the first half of 2002) due to strong product image of its competitors by other automakers, including the Subaru Legacy (26,000 unit sales) and Impreza. In the Japanese market, despite shrinking car sales, small cars have been continuously showing strong sales. However, small cars do not bring a large profit. By including a 4WD version to the Altezza, Toyota dealers intend to lure young people who are enthusiastic about sporty cars and blow away the Subaru models.Audi shows strong sales in JuneAudi Japan has announced that their monthly sales reached the highest ever of 1,023 units for June and total sales in the first half in 2002 was the second highest ever, following the figure in 1997. Sales in the first half increased by 73 percent to 5,540 units on year-to-year comparison. They said that continuous strong sales of the A4 introduced last year largely contributed to the strong sales in the first quarter. For the second quarter, the introduction of the A4 Avant in February and steadily popular models of the Allroad quattro resulted to sales increases. Audi Japan expects that although overall car demand will fall, their sales in the latter half will continue to increase due to expansion of dealer network in addition to their high quality products.July 5, 2002
Small car dominates the top ranking in the first half of 2002On July 4, JADA announced model ranking for the first half of 2002 (excluding subcompacts). Three out of the top five models are small cars, which are the only category that showed sales increases in the same period. The top model was the Honda Fit. This is first time for Honda to capture the top for the first half. The Toyota Corolla achieved the second. The Nissan March, introduced in March 2002, was the third model with a large sales increase (2.1 times the previous figure). Toyota's minivans showed strong sales. Sales of the Toyota Estima and Noah/Voxy achieved stable sales performance while the Honda Stepwagon experienced a large decline. In the first half of 2002, registered car sales fell for the first time in three years (down 5.7 percent). Standard passenger sales showed a two-digit decline but small car sales barely achieved an increase (up 0.9 percent). Automakers aggressively introduced small cars in the first half, including the Toyota ist model. For the latter half, the market is expected to expand. Mazda and Mitsubishi plan to launch new small cars models with Demio and Colt. In the subcompact market, sales continue to show strong sales. Suzuki has long waiting lists for the Alto Lapin and MR Wagon. The Suzuki WagonR, a long best selling subcompact, will soon undergo a full model change.Import car sales in the first half of 2002 declineJAIA announced on the 4th that import car sales for the first half fell by 2 percent to 136,989 units. This is mainly due to weak sales of top brands, including Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz, BMW and Volvo. Sales of foreign makers in Japan declined by 1.6 percent to 130,192 units while those of Japanese makers dropped by 9.3 percent to 6,797 units. Passenger car sales fell by 0.5 percent to 128,318 units, truck sales were 1,872 units (down 44.1 percent) and bus sales were only 2 units (down 66.7 percent). Subcompact sales (Smart only) were 1,958 units. Volkswagen was the top brand with 31,531 unit sales (down 2.1 percent), followed by Mercedes Benz with 21,633 units (down 19.6 percent), and BMW with 17,605 units (down 1.3 percent) and Volvo with 8,094 units (down 4.1 percent). Opel and Chrysler also showed large declines while Peugeot, Audi, Alpha Romeo, Jaguar and Hyundai achieved large increases. Sales in June alone also decreased. Sales of foreign maker models declined by 1.9 percent to 25,674 units and those of Japanese makers sharply decreased by 27.4 percent to 1,000 units.Suzuki to procure diesel engines from OpelSuzuki plans to procure diesel engines produced by Fiat Auto and Adam Opel and apply them to models introduced in Europe and other Asian nations. This is first time for Suzuki to use Opel diesel engines. Suzuki and Opel are in the GM group. Suzuki has procured diesel engines from PSA for the Escudo (SUV), developed for the European market. Demand for diesel engines has been rapidly increasing mainly in Europe, India and Indonesia. Diesel engines that will be supplied by Fiat and Opel are 1.2 liter model and applied to the Swift, WagonR and Jimny. They plan to continue procurement from PSA for the Escudo. They are scheduled to use the engine starting with a compact model produced at Maruti Udyog and the model will appear on the Indian market this year.Mazda to introduce sister models of the DemioMazda has announced that they will start introduction of sister models of the Demio in 2004 in order to strengthen small car sales in Japan. They will take advantage of digital design technology to shorten development time to 12 months and keep up with rapidly changing market needs. In the small car market, competition has been getting fierce and automakers are aggressively developing new models. However, the Demio is the Mazda's only small lineup, which make it difficult for them to increase sales share in the market. During the product planning for the first sister model, they researched lifestyle of young people in big cities to reflect the results during development.This summer, they will introduce the all new Demio. Japanese automakers allege piracy in ChinaOn the 4th, a joint accusation of piracy against companies in China was revealed. The accusation involves Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi and Suzuki. They said that Chinese companies infringe upon trademark rights and sell products with their logo marks. According to the Japanese automakers, they lost well over 100 billion yen annually by the infringement of the rights. In response to the accusation, a Chinese public safety agency charged a glass maker in Guangong in June. Five automakers laid an accusation in January and Toyota, Nissan and Honda brought an accusation in March. In June, motorcycle makers (Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki) also placed an accusation against parts makers in China. They mentioned that copied parts are exported and sold in the Middle East and South America. According to a report by JETRO Peking center in November last year, 54 percent of Japanese companies have experienced infringement of copyrights. In March, six electronic appliance makers warned against Chinese DVD player makers.July 4, 2002Honda announces 2002 annual environment reportOn July 3, Honda announced 2002 environment report. As of the end of March 2002, they achieved an average fuel efficiency increase of 25 percent, which they initially planned to attain in FY2005. Honda started proceeding with "green strategy" in FY2001 and they established "green guidelines" for parts purchases and dealer sales. At the same time, they established "Honda LCA (Life Cycle Assessment)", that analyzes how their products place a burden on environment. Based on the Honda LCA, they compared CO2 emissions from the Civic Hybrid and its base model (Civic Ferio). The Civic Hybrid emits slightly larger CO2 than the Ferio during a production procedure because it requires an IMA system and batteries. However, the Civic Hybrid has achieved 25 percent lower running emissions. Honda mentioned in the 2002 report that they set a target of a 30 percent increase for fuel efficiency compared to figures in FY2001. By 2005, they plan to clear ULEV levels for entire passenger lineup. From this fiscal year, they included their environment strategies to reduce ground and underground water pollution and their results. For recycling, Honda modified their conventional evaluation system by dividing in three categories (3R: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle). They adopted the new 3R system during a design stage starting with the That's and Mobilio. In terms of environment management, they are planning to obtain ISO14001 certification in the global market. In Europe, they achieved EMAS last December for HUM (their UK plant).Mazda adopts flexible production lines at AAI in the USAt Auto Alliance International (AAI) in the US, Mazda has adopted flexible lines that can handle four different models per line. They combined welding machines with a main body line. From this coming autumn, they plan to use the facilities for the Atenza (sedan, sports and wagon types). At their Hofu plant in Japan, flexible lines can handle nine different models with a flexible line with welding machines. AAI, a joint venture with Ford located in Michigan, currently produces the Mazda626 (Capella).On the 3rd, Mazda announced that the Atenza (Mazda6) shows strong sales in Europe, mainly in Germany and the UK. They have received orders of 30,000 units. In Japan, the Atenza sedan and sports were introduced on May 20 and a sports wagon version was released on June 24. Total sales in Japan have reached 7,500 units (1,500 units for the sports wagon). Due to its popularity, Mazda increased monthly production of the Atenza at Hofu plant to 14,500 units in June. For the domestic market, main customers are young people for the sports wagon and people in 40s and 50s for the sedan. Most popular body color is gray (25 percent), followed by white (21 percent) and yellow (14 percent). Mitsubishi and DaimlerChrysler to strengthen cooperation for ASEAN salesMitsubishi and DaimlerChrysler have started talks about joint small truck sales in AEAN nations. They plan to introduce DaimlerChrysler trucks through Mitsubishi's sales network in Indonesia where Mitsubishi has a 65 percent sales share (about 40,000 units sales annually). DaimlerChrylser intends to increase sales in the ASEAN market where they have experienced weak truck sales. They mostly sell passenger cars in Indonesia while Mitsubishi has 170 commercial vehicle dealerships. In Europe, Mitsubishi has started sales of their small trucks (the Canter) through sales network of DaimlerChrysler.NKK delivers flaw-marked steel plate coils to ToyotaNKK announced on the 3rd that they use "Delta-Eye" automatic surface inspection and marking system and deliver steel plate coils with flaws marked to Toyota. The Delta-Eye system with three channels of polarized lights can detect extremely fine patterned flaws even if they are hidden in the galvanized layers. It identifies only flaws and excludes harmless patterns. They said that the system can greatly reduce costs, which are usually required for packing by steel makers and flaw identifications by automakers. Toyota has decided an allowable number of markings per coil. NKK has already adopted the Delta-Eye system to three lines at Fukuyama Seisakusho. Price per system is 200 million to 300 million yen. They plan to expand application of the system for 70 to 80 percent of their total steel plat coil production by proposing the method to Nissan and Honda.Ashimori Industry to expand production in ThailandAshimori Industry, a safety system maker, plans to add airbag production to seat belts in Thailand and increase local procurement from the current 50 percent to 70-80 percent. They achieved profitability last year due to economic recovery in Thailand. Main clients of their Thailand plant are AAT (Auto Alliance Thailand), a joint venture between Mazda and Ford, and Honda. Ashimori has also formed an alliance with Delphi to strengthen their global business. In Thailand, product quality has been rapidly increasing since an increasing number of Japanese makers started production there.July 3, 2002Toyota introduces new commercial vans
Sticker prices are 870,000 yen for the Probox lowest price model (2WD, FF) and 1,220,000 yen for the Succeed lowest price model (2WD, FF). At the press conference for the Probox and Succeed, Toyota President, Fujio Cho mentioned that they hope an early introduction of a FCEV this year will help rapidly expand recognition of FCEVs in the world and accelerate infrastructure establishment. In response to export expansion for the last few months, especially to the US, he said that if the condition continues for a long period, they might increase overseas production to keep up with increasing orders. To deal with unstable US economy, they expect the US government will quickly solve problems before they will change their business strategy in the US. Truck makers and government to establish urea infrastructureFour large vehicle makers and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry plan to establish urea infrastructure for diesel vehicles. The infrastructure is targeting 2005 long-term exhaust regulations that will largely lower allowable PM and NOx emission levels. Compared to levels in the latest short-term regulations, emissions have to be reduced by maximum of 85 percent for PM and 50 percent for NOx. Prior to its implementation, automakers are forced to develop PM and NOx reduction technology and they are considering application of SCR system using urea. In addition to low price for urea, SCR system has already been commercialized and adopted to reduce flue gas emissions from plants.GM Japan to release the VectraOn July 2, GM Japan announced that they will introduce the all new Vectra on July 27 for the Japanese market. The new Vectra is equipped with a 2.2 liter DOHC engine and 5 speed automatic transmission with learning function. The lineup includes the Vectra 2.2 and Vectra Premium. Sticker prices are 3,350,000 yen for the 2.2 and 3,620,000 yen for the Premium with an annual sales target of 1,000 units. Only right hand drive is available for the both models. They are scheduled to introduce the Vectra GTS (five-door hatchback) by the end of this year, the Vectra Signum in 2003 and the Vectra Wagon in 2004.Tokyo Buhin Kogyo to produce pumps in the USTokyo Buhin Kogyo plans to establish a US production base for oil and water pumps in 2003. The new US plant is scheduled to start operation next year. They are scheduled to shift production for US clients from Japan in order to reduce costs. Their major products are pumps for engines and brakes. This January, they establish a sales company in Indiana. In the US, they have received orders for fuel pumps from Cummins and Meritor Automotive. They also export products to the US through Isuzu and other Japanese automakers. Annual export figures of Tokyo Buhin Kogyo are 350 million yen. When including exports through Japanese automakers, total figures reach 1,350 million yen.On the 2nd, Tokyo Buhin Kogyo announced that they established a joint venture in Spain with GSB group, an aluminum die casting maker in Spain. Tokyo Buhin and GSB group formed a technological alliance in June 2000. The new company, called GSB-TBK Automotive Components SL, will produce oil and water pumps for the European market. The company is scheduled to start operation in October and supply products for passenger cars to European automakers. Total capital amount is 2 million euros (GSB group 75percent and Tokyo Buhin 25 percent). Tokyo Buhin will invest 300 million yen for facilities. Their sales target is 8 million euros. Nissan to expand Elgrand's safety system for sedansNissan has revealed that they will expand application of safety technology developed for the Elgrand. They have greatly improved passenger safety levels during front full-lap and offset collisions. In order to achieve high safety levels, Nissan used straight shaped front-side members to increase reaction force for the Elgrand. They plan to use the new members for their sedan lineup to improve safety levels of their vehicles.July 2, 2002Automobile sales decline in the first half of 2002Overall new car sales in the first half of 2002 in Japan fell by 4 percent to 2,0984,673 units. The figure declined for the first time in two years. Although sales of passenger cars and buses maintained at a last year's level, cargo vehicle sales sharply dropped.
Japan Mini Vehicle Association has announced that sales figures for the first half of 2002 slightly fell by 0.2 percent to 970,935 units. However, the figure is the third highest ever. This is mainly due to Nissan's entry into the subcompact market and new model introductions since last autumn (starting with the Mitsubishi eK Wagon). On the other hand, cargo subcompact sales dropped by 11.1 percent to 269,698 units. Suzuki, Mitsubishi and Nissan achieved increases while Daihatsu and Fuji Heavy Industries experienced declines. Toyota to focus on battery longevity for HEVsToyota plans to strengthen technology to increase longevity of HEV batteries to achieve 150,000km traveling (up 150 percent). Because HEV batteries require high price, people are hesitant to buy purchasing HEVs. They plan to improve battery performance while increasing their longevity so users will require fewer battery exchanges. Toyota has set a HEV sales target of 300,000 units in 2005. Their HEVs are equipped with batteries developed by Panasonic EV Energy, which has over 100,000km of longevity at a price of just over 200,000 yen.Toyota to introduce a FCEV this yearOn the 1st, Toyota announced that they will move up a date of introduction of their first commercialized FCEV by one year and launch it at the end of this year for the Japanese and US markets. Maximum sales will be 20 units. They plan to limit clients to governmental organizations, research institutes and energy companies. Toyota has been conducting public road tests with a Kluger V based FCEV in Japan and the US. They are scheduled to soon have the cost and performance problems cleared up. They regard sales of the first FCEV as a tool to research the market.NEC develops "Eco Drive Evaluation system"NEC has developed a "Eco Drive Evaluation system" that analyzes driving conditions and provide evaluation results and advice from an information center to drivers. They used data gained through a government supported internet ITS joint research group consisting of Keio University, Toyota, Denso and NEC. The new system transmits vehicle data (including fuel injection time, engine r.p.m, throttle position, vehicle speed and air conditioning operation) to the information center through mobile phones or PCs. The center will analyze, process and display the data for the drivers. Price required per unit will be greater than 100,000 yen.Toyota tries to achieve a 15 percent global shareToyota is targeting a 15 percent sales share in the global market in "2010 Global Vision", after they achieved a 10 percent share. Toyota is now rapidly expanding global production and this January they established "Toyota Institute", a management training center. In 1982 Toyota set up "Global 10 " in order to achieve a 10 percent world share. Since then, they have been aggressively expanding overseas production, starting with NUMMI (a joint venture with GM) in Europe in 1984 and TMMK in 1988. This autumn, they are scheduled to start production in China with annual production target of 30,000 units (compact passenger cars). At TMMWV in North America, they have already started production expansion for the Matrix and engines for valves. At TMMP in Poland they have started production of manual transmissions. As a result, their 2001 consolidated production reached 5,848,094 units (including Hino and Daihatsu) and became the second largest automaker, following GM. In order to further expand overseas production, they plan to focus on training staff and expanding financial companies (currently located in 21 different countries). They also plan to strengthen global management by setting up "Global Headquarters" to conduct smooth management between countries. In addition, they appointed new presidents from local staff for TMMK (in Kentucky) and TMUK (United Kingdom) to strengthen globalization.July 1, 2002Export in May skyrocketAccording to a report announced by JAMA on the 28th, car export figures in May jumped by 25.6 percent to 360,246 units. The figure has been increasing for five straight months. Exports to North America showed a sharp increase. Figures for passenger cars jumped by 26.6 percent to 310,897 units. Standard passenger car exports showed a large increase by 34.6 percent. Although small truck exports declined for the first time in two months, figures for standard trucks grew sharply by 25.3 percent. As a result, overall truck exports increased by 21.6 percent to 45,554 units. Exports to all countries (except Central and South America) increased, especially to North America (up 37.2 percent). All makers achieved two-digit increases (for the first time since January 1981). However, forecastsc look grim due to unstable North American market.Daihatsu Copen shows strong salesSuzuki expects profits from GMDATSuzuki has agreed on capital participation into GMDAT, a new company to help reestablish Daewoo. The company will specialize in compact cars. GM group will invest $400 million (67 percent) into GMDAT and Suzuki will pay $89 million (14.9 percent). Suzuki has an alliance with Daewoo over 10 years and they produced an Alto based model at Daewoo. However, Suzuki attaches more importance on technological merits than the conventional alliance. Suzuki expects they can adopt low-price and high quality parts made in Korea. Major products by Suzuki and Daewoo are compacts, which make it easier to share parts. Suzuki intends to earn 2 billion yen sales through the new company. GM and Suzuki are scheduled to sell models produced at GMDAT under their own brand names. They have also agreed on conducting joint development of new models and sharing powertrain and parts. GMDAT has announced that they will focus on compacts to achieve 120,000 unit sales. As Suzuki has decided to shift focus to compacts from subcompacts to bring profits and introduce eight new compacts (more than subcompacts) in their mid-term plan (ending in 2004), they think the participation in GMDAT will be a great support for them to achieve sales expansion.Lexus attains the highest point rating for SSI in TaiwanJ.D Power Pacific has reported 2002 automobile satisfactory index for the Taiwan market. The research was conducted on service provided by dealers during new car purchases (buyers with three to seven month old cars). They gained responses from over 2,500 people. Lexus received the highest rate of 876 points (out of 1,000 points). It kept the top place for three consecutive years. Toyota came second followed by Mitsubishi, BMW and Nissan. However, Lexus achieved only one percent increase while average increase ratio are higher. Mercedes Benz achieved an 8 percent increase and BMW received a 4 percent increase. According to J.D Power, a key point to achieve higher rate is fast product delivering. Average delivery dates for standard passenger cars increased by 1.7 days while figures for luxury cars shortened by 1.7 days.Hitachi and Denso announce on-board voice communication systemOn the 28th, Hitachi and Denso announced that they have succeeded in development of a base system of on-board voice communication units. The unit can access to internet and download data with a voice recognition system, called "Voice XML" . The two companies started the system development last autumn with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). The base system consists of onboard voice processing systems connecting to a network center that conduct voice recognition and voice interpreter. It can also be applicable to other systems, including car audio systems. With the system, communication fees can be greatly reduced. In the joint development, Hitachi developed technology to get information by voice command, Denso was in charge of car navigation related technology and CMU provided communication management systems based on natural language processing technology.Victor expand production in IndonesiaVictor Co. Japan plans to increase production of aftermarket car audio units by 20 percent in Indonesia. This is in response to sales expansion in Europe, North America and Japan. They currently produce their entire car audio units in Indonesia (except luxury models produced in Singapore) and export them for overseas aftermarket use. They plan to adopt "cell method" production to achieve production capacity of 6 million units (currently 5.3 million) and domestic share of 15 percent (currently 10 percent) by 2004. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||