Tag - cars

 
 

CARS

Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda speaks during a news conference in Nagoya on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 30, 2024
World No. 1 but mired in scandal: Toyota sees mixed start to 2024
Despite the steady performance of its business, the carmaker has been shaken by wrongdoing at group firms, leading to an apology from the chairman.
Toyota's Land Cruiser 300 SUV is among models subject to a halt in shipments after irregularities were found during certification tests for diesel engines.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 29, 2024
Toyota halts shipment of some vehicles over certification issues
A special investigative committee found irregularities during horsepower output testing for the certification of three diesel engine models.
Sompo Holdings' Kengo Sakurada is planning to step down as the company's CEO at the end of March.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 23, 2024
Sompo Holdings' CEO to resign over handling of Bigmotor wrongdoing
The Financial Services Agency has ended its on-site inspections of Sompo Holdings and Sompo Japan and is expected to issue business improvement orders.
Honda’s sales in the United States soared 33% last year and the firm anticipates continued growth but at a more modest pace.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 19, 2024
Honda sees 2024 U.S. sales climbing 10% with boost from hybrids
Honda’s sales in the U.S. soared 33% last year to 1.3 million vehicles — with one-quarter of that total coming from hybrid models.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 17, 2024
Daihatsu may lose production rights for three models in safety scandal
An inspection by the transport ministry found that air bags had been set to inflate automatically in tests rather than when a crash was detected.
Volkswagen is casting its net wider in pursuit of a potentially game-changing technology: a "solid-state" electric car battery
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 16, 2024
Volkswagen and rivals plug away at solid-state battery puzzle
An array of technical hurdles are holding back wider development of solid-state technology, seen by its backers as the "holy grail" of EV batteries.
Soichiro Watanabe, Panasonic's chief technology officer for EV batteries, says production of a revamped version of the firm's 2170 cells will begin at its manufacturing plant in Nevada as early as this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 15, 2024
Panasonic to make upgraded electric car battery as early as 2024
Production of a revamped version of the company's 2170 cells will begin at its manufacturing plant in Nevada sometime during 2024 or 2025.
A screen next to a police station in the city of Okayama featuring a road safety campaign video in November.
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2024
Japan sees rise in traffic deaths for first time in eight years
Japan still saw the third-lowest death toll on record, with data dating back to 1948.
Toyota's global production jumped 11% in November to a record level, bouncing back from last year's supply chain disruptions and benefiting from robust demand both in Japan and overseas.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 27, 2023
Toyota saw record November sales on demand from U.S. and Europe
Global sales — including that of subsidiaries Hino and Daihatsu — rose 12% from a year earlier to 986,262 units.
Toyota dealer Hiroshima Toyopet has installed air conditioners at all 30 of its maintenance facilities in Hiroshima Prefecture to ensure mechanics can work comfortably during the summer.
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Dec 25, 2023
Hiroshima car dealers seek ways to attract mechanics
Since many people use their cars as a daily means of transportation, it is essential to secure a stable pool of mechanics.
Subsidies in China turned the country into an electric vehicle giant but produced weed-infested graveyards of abandoned EVs.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 25, 2023
No one wants used EVs, making new ones a tougher sell too
In the $1.2 trillion secondhand market, prices for battery-powered cars are falling faster than for their combustion-engine cousins.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 21, 2023
Daihatsu offices raided after scandal halts all car shipments
The raid followed revelations that the carmaker and supplier had manipulated the results of various collision safety tests dating as far back as 1989.
Daihatsu said Wednesday that it will suspend shipments of all vehicle models made in Japan and abroad due to an unfolding scandal over misconduct in its crash tests.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 20, 2023
Toyota's Daihatsu to halt shipments as safety scandal widens
The results of an investigation suggest the scope of safety concerns, first disclosed in April, is now far greater than previously thought.
A 2023 Toyota Prius vehicle during an auto show in New York in April
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 20, 2023
In the birthplace of Toyota’s Prius, hybrids now reign supreme
Japan’s biggest carmakers have only recently promised to roll out a wider slate of battery-only models in the next two to three years.
FACTEV shows that a Nissan Leaf electric car driven in Hokkaido will get between 106 kilometers and 212 kilometers per charge in its first year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 12, 2023
Using big data to speed up Japan’s slow electric car transition
Gaming company DeNA has developed an EV simulation tool that can assess the lifespan and cruising range per charge of battery cars over time.
Bernadett Vejkey, marketing manager at Addionics, holds up a sheet of a porous, three-dimensional copper anode the battery materials startup has developed for electric vehicle batteries, at the company's lab in London.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 11, 2023
Fear of cheap Chinese EVs spurs dash for affordable cars
Legacy automakers are turning to suppliers to get their costs down and even steer clear of rare earths, a segment dominated by China.
Tokyo police had a veterinarian perform a postmortem on the hapless pigeon and determined its cause of death as traumatic shock.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 5, 2023
Police arrest Japan taxi driver after running over pigeon
Tokyo police had a veterinarian perform a postmortem on the hapless pigeon and determined its cause of death as traumatic shock.
SoftBank has agreed to buy a majority stake in Irish software developer Cubic Telecom for around €473 million.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 5, 2023
SoftBank buys majority stake in Irish car software developer
SoftBank will acquire 51% of Cubic Telecom, which provides a platform for automakers to update software functions in cars globally and in real time.
A BMW electric vehicle is charged at a charging station in Drogenbos, Belgium, in November.
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2023
EU's electric dreams short-circuited by EV charging gridlock
The process for setting up a fast EV charging station has risen to an average of two years from six months in the last few years.
Tesla's new Cybertruck is displayed at a Tesla store in San Diego on Nov. 20.
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2023
Tesla's Cybertruck is priced 50% higher than initial estimate
Cybertruck's new body material and unconventional, futuristic styling has added complexity and costs to production.

Longform

Eme-Ima Kitchen is one of over 10,000 kodomo shokudō in Japan. A term first used in 2012 to describe makeshift eateries offering free or cheap meals to disadvantaged kids, it now refers to a diverse range of individuals, groups and organizations working to provide not only food but a sense of belonging to both children and adults.
Japan’s ‘children’s cafeterias’ are booming — but is that a good thing?