Japanese car exporters

 Four of the largest Japanese car manufacturers have teamed up to develop a major extension of the country’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and Mitsubishi yesterday announced they will promote the installation of chargers at a wide range of locations, including shopping malls, restaurants, and motorway service station, as well as the roll out of rapid chargers at locations that are suited for shorter stops, such as convenience stores and petrol stations.

The companies also pledged to promote charger installation by bearing part of the costs, assisted by 100.5 billion Yen (£666m) of government subsidies, for a temporary period.

In addition, they said they would work with companies that are already providing charging services, in which each of the four automakers already have a financial stake, to create a more joined-up network and payment process.

“Previously, each automaker assessed possible locations for charging facilities on their own,” a joint statement said. “Now, they have agreed to work jointly under the common understanding that the charging infrastructure has public value and that enhancing it should be done quickly during the limited period that the subsidies are available.”

There are currently around 1,700 quick chargers and just over 3,000 normal chargers in Japan, but the companies said studies are underway to increase the number of normal chargers by 8,000 and quick chargers by 4,000.

The move will undoubtedly help sales of the companies’ pure electric and plug-in hybrid models, which include the Nissan LEAF, Mitsubishi iMiEV, and Toyota plug-in Prius.

In the absence of significant government support for charging networks and faced with relatively slow take-up for new electric vehicles, car makers are starting to take matters into their own hands.

The Japanese collaboration follows BMW’s five year partnership deal with Charge-master to establish ChargeNow, a public charging network for owners of its BMW i electric range across the UK.

It also comes as British Gas continues to build on its partnership with Mitsubishi to accelerate the roll out of domestic chargers, which comes ahead of the expected release of the new Outlander plug-in hybrid at the end of 2013.

Andreas Atkins, head of electric vehicle services at British Gas, said its offer of charging points to customers was “a milestone for the UK’s electric vehicle market”.

SOURCE:

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Japan Car Exporter, Japanese Used Cars, Used Japanese Cars

ABOUT WHEELS DEALERS

• WHEELS DEALERS is the exclusive, members – only Vehicle trading network
• WHEELS DEALERS is the largest online Vehicle community today, connecting best Vehicle suppliers and buyers around the world. it is the primary market for Used Vehicle.
• WHEELS DEALERS is an exclusive professional trading community.
• When you join WHEELS DEALERS , you become a member of the most important and powerful group of vehicle dealers in the world.
• WHEELS DEALERS is fully supported, monitored and managed by WHEELS DEALERS team members in Japan, India, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia & Dubai.
• WHEELS DEALERS is simply the most efficient way to show case your stock to a Local & global audience.

THE BENEFIT OF WHEELS DEALERS

• Members acn Search ,Auction, Post their Demand through WHEELS DEALERS.
• WHEELS DEALERS connects buyers and sellers virtually World-wide – enabling sales, saving time and money.
• Our state-of-the-art search tool enables buyers to zero-in on the Vehicle they need – quickly and efficiently.
• WHEELS DEALERS holds one of the Japan’s largest inventory of Used vehicles.
• The Global virtual marketplace helps Sellers to expand their market instantly.
• Our inventory module helps in meeting every single customer enquiry , While reducing inventory cost.

WHEELS DEALERS BUYERS

• WHEELS DEALERS buyer have direct access to hundreds of thousands of Vehicle from suppliers all over the Japan . Sophisticated search engines allow buyers to find the Vehicle they need quickly. A broad range of search criteria can be applied.
• Search results are presented and sorted by best price, so buyers can easily identify the best deals and locate the best suppliers.
• Buyers can also Bid auction , Offer Stock, Fix appointment, send info for specific Vehicle, post WHEELS DEALERS buy request and enable Transaction notification when Vehicle become available.

WHEELS DEALERS SELLERS

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• With WHEELS DEALERS, increasing sales, lowering marketing cost , finding new customers and expanding busi-ness, are just a few away.

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• All the transaction(Buy, Sell, Auction, Offer, Info, appointment, wish List) Inventory listing, Auction listing are controlled through Dash board.

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• iPhone WHEELS DEALERS brings the Global Vehicle market in your palm. You can do mist of the transaction through your iPhone. You can download WHEELS DEALERS from App-store.

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Toyota Car Exported in Japan

Tokyo: Toyota Motor Corp. looked set to retain its title as the world’s top-selling car maker in the first half of this year, company figures showed on Friday, outpacing General Motors Co. and Volkswagen AG as it boosted overseas sales to a record high.

The Japanese auto maker said its groupwide global sales for the first six months totalled 4.911 million vehicles. That was down 1.1% from a year earlier due to weaker Japan sales following the end of green car subsidies, but sales in the US, its biggest market, were strong.

By comparison, General Motors’s January-June sales rose 4% to more than 4.85 million cars and light trucks, while Volkswagen’s climbed 5.5% to 4.7 million vehicles, those companies reported earlier this month.

Volkswagen’s sales figure, however, excludes its Scania and MAN brands. Scania sold 37,980 vehicles during the same period, while the MAN figure will be released later this month. In recent years, MAN has sold around 60,000 to 70,000 vehicles in the first half of the year.

Toyota regained the global sales crown last year after slipping to third place behind GM and Volkswagen in 2011, when its supply chain was hit by naturals disasters in Japan and Thailand and after a series of recalls tarnished its reputation for quality. Previously, it had been on top from 2008 through 2010.

Toyota’s groupwide total includes sales at Daihatsu Motor Co Ltd and Hino Motors Ltd.

Toyota, based in central Japan, last year made about 40% of its vehicles in Japan and exported nearly 60% of that. It has benefited from a weaker yen that allows it to export cars more profitably. Toyota, which is scheduled to announce quarterly results on 2 August, is expected to post an 84% year-on-year rise in operating profit to 649 billion yen ($6.5 billion) and an operating profit margin of 10.8%, according to analyst forecasts. The results would likely outpace those of No. 2 Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. and third-ranked Honda Motor Co.

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Used car sales fall 2.9% in Japan

Used car sales fall 2.9% in Jan – June

Domestic used vehicle sales fell 2.9 percent from a year before to 2.03 million units in the January-June period, industry data showed Wednesday.

Sales marked the first decline in two years for the first-half period, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said.

The decline stemmed from a shortage of inventories in line with a decrease in new vehicle sales following the end of a government subsidy program for fuel-efficient cars in September, association officials said.

In addition, an increasing number of trade-in vehicles have been too old to be sold as used vehicles, the officials said.

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Toyota and its dealers are quietly maneuvering to allay risks from periodic eruptions of anti-Japan sentiment in China

BEIJING (Reuters) — Toyota and its dealers are quietly maneuvering to allay risks from periodic eruptions of anti-Japan sentiment in China, even as recent sales data suggest a slow but steady recovery for Japanese automakers since the latest flare-up last year.

China sales for Toyota Motor Corp. and other Japanese car makers tumbled after a territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo sparked an outbreak of anti-Japanese protests in September last year.

Trade and diplomatic ties between Asia’s two biggest economies are prone to sporadic disruptions, a legacy of the lingering bitterness from Japan’s wartime occupation of large parts of northeastern China.

As a result, some executives at Toyota’s China unit are considering the merit of focusing its sales effort, at least in the shorter term, on southern China, where anti-Japanese sentiment is historically weaker.

In the south, sales of Japanese cars have all but recovered to pre-September levels “as if nothing happened”, a senior Toyota executive in Beijing said.

“Our feeling is why spend money to overcome the bias against Japanese products in northern China?” the executive said.

“We could get more bang out of that same money by focusing on southern China where we already have a (relatively) good will towards Toyota and Lexus.”

Asked about such a move, a Toyota spokesman said it was focusing on the quality of it products.

“The bottom line: the best thing for us as an auto maker to do in China, and in any market for that matter, is to keep making efforts to come up as quickly as possible with the kind of cars consumers deem desirable and want to embrace,” Toyota’s Beijing-based spokesman, Takanori Yokoi, said

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Small is big for Japanese auto makers eyeing Indonesia and India

Tokyo: Japanese automakers such as Honda Motor Co. and the Toyota-Daihatsu group have a problem: the smallest cars they make are very big in Japan—and only Japan.

Consider Honda’s hi-tech N BOX, a four-passenger microcar that combines some of the utility features of a much larger SUV—the seats roll down to load a bicycle or two—and the fuel-sipping economy of a tiny, 660-cc engine.

For the first half of 2013, the zippy N BOX was the best-selling car in Japan’s popular vehicle category that now represents almost 40% of vehicles on the road.

But outside Japan, the concept of the so-called kei car, a term derived from the Japanese word light, is mostly unknown. Now that could change. The Japanese auto giants are considering exporting the technology to emerging market countries.

“We have fairly low-priced cars in those markets already, but in India and markets like Indonesia, we need even smaller, even more affordable cars,” Honda’s chief spokesman Masaya Nagai said.

Rising fuel costs and a fast growing middle class in the world’s second and fourth most populous states make them likely to be the first microcar customers.

As a first step, companies such as Honda have designed their kei cars—the kei is pronounced like the letter “k”—in a way that makes its easier to produce them overseas.

“We spent a long time nurturing the kei car technology in Japan, and we think it has the potential to be useful not only in developed markets but also in emerging markets,” Honda’s chief executive officer Takanobu Ito told reporters in June.

Honda is not alone.

Toyota Motor Corp. is using technology from its affiliate Daihatsu Motor Co., a kei-car specialist, to develop minicars for Indonesia.

Mitsbubishi Motors Corp. is looking at selling kei-concept cars in Africa, where president Osamu Masuko plans to attend a distributors’ conference this month. Nissan’s chief operating officer Toshiyuki Shiga also said last month that kei cars have a potential of going global.

While few Japanese carmakers have tried to popularize microcars outside of Japan, there are exceptions.

Suzuki Motor Corp. and Daihatsu have targeted India and Southeast Asia since the early 1980s, building a credible presence, although their technology differs from that used to build Honda’s kei.

More recently, General Motors Co. and its Chinese affiliate Wuling have been making an aggressive push for micro minivans in China. Their next bet is India.

Honda believes its advanced microcar technology and the favourable marketing conditions in India and Indonesia mean that the time is right to export the kei concept.

Joost Geginat, an auto market expert with Roland Berger consultancy in Singapore, predicts Japanese companies will invest a total $1.8 billion to produce kei-concept cars in Indonesia.

Micros in macro race

 

Now the race in the microcar market is heating up. Honda, Japan’s third largest automaker most famous for its Civic and Accord cars, is betting on small cars to meet its aggressive target of selling six million vehicles globally a year by March 2017 from current sales of around four million.

To do so, Honda aims to double sales in emerging markets to account for half of total vehicle sales, and its kei car technology could play a key role in that.

Indonesia, where over a million cars were sold last year, is one such market. Last month, Jakarta rolled back fuel subsidies, raising motor fuel prices by an average of 33%. At around the same time, Indonesia signed into law a Low Cost Green Car (LCGC) programme to promote small cars such as the kei, though it is on hold pending review.

Geginat says Toyota, Daihatsu, Suzuki and Honda could roll out a combined 500,000 LCGCs, valued at under at $10,000 each, a year once the new law is in place.

Honda is looking at taking the microcar technology to Indonesia and neighbouring Malaysia, Hiroshi Takemura, who oversees Honda’s small car operations, told Reuters last month.

The company has designed its N BOX to share certain structures with the Fit, Honda’s global compact car also known as the Jazz, meaning the two cars can be manufactured on the same line, said Yoshiyuki Matsumoto, Honda’s managing officer.

Honda currently builds the Fit or Jazz at 10 plants around the world, including Indonesia and Thailand.

One challenge for Honda and other Japanese automakers is pricing. Honda’s N BOX starts from around $12,500, slightly more expensive than the outgoing model of the Fit that starts from about $12,200.

To produce a sub $10,000 no-frills car in Indonesia, features like the turbocharger, vehicle assist system and airbags may have to go, and an old-fashioned key used to start the car instead of an electronic smart key.

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Japanese automakers, rebounding from an earthquake and aided by a weakening yen

 Japanese automakers, rebounding from an earthquake and aided by a weakening yen, cranked up U.S. vehicle production by 36 percent last year while boosting imports from Japan by 19 percent.

 

Japanese automakers built 3.3 million cars and trucks in the U.S. last year, up from 2.4 million in 2011, according to new data from the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, a Tokyo-based trade group representing that country’s major carmakers.

 

That was the most since 2007, when Japanese automakers produced 3.5 million vehicles in the United States, JAMA said.

 

As U.S. auto sales reached their highest level last year since 2007, Japanese automakers boosted their U.S. market share to 36.9 percent, from 34.9 percent in 2011.

 

Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and other Japanese automakers rebounded from Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami that crippled output, cutting off critical parts needed to produce vehicles.

 

“We’re finally seeing recovery from the recession as well as the earthquake and tsunami,” said Ron Bookbinder, general director of JAMA USA. “As long as the U.S. economy and U.S. vehicle demand hold up, U.S. production should continue to rise.”

 

Japanese automakers are also benefiting from a yen that has weakened by 19 percent against the dollar since Oct. 31, when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe began a campaign to lower Japan’s currency to stimulate the economy. That gives Japanese automakers an extra $1,500 to $2,000 per car and reduces the cost of production in Japan, according to Morgan Stanley.

 

Imports rise

Auto imports from Japan rose to 1.7 million vehicles last year, from 1.4 million in 2011, according to JAMA. That was the highest since 2008, when Japanese automakers imported 2.1 million cars and trucks into the United States, JAMA said.

 

The weaker yen also lowers Japanese automakers manufacturing costs in the United States because their cars contain so much content from Japan, said Adam Jonas, an analyst for Morgan Stanley.

 

He calculates Japanese autos sold in the U.S. contain about 44 percent of Japan-made parts.

 

“The yen doesn’t sell cars, but it deals you a good hand,” said Jonas, who just returned from meeting with automakers in Japan. “What sells cars is how the Japanese share the yen with consumers, either in the form of a lower price or a better car at a similar price.”

 

Nissan Motor Co.’s U.S. sales surged 25 percent in May, triple the industrywide gain, after it cut prices on seven models. Honda is introducing a redesigned 2014 Acura MDX with $4,000 in additional features, yet that model’s price is only $1,710 higher, Jonas said.

 

‘Gain share’

“The Japanese do want to gain share here,” said Jonas, who forecasts Japanese automakers share of the U.S. market will grow to 40 percent next year from 39 percent this year. “They know that Abe’s got their back. He’s not going to let them down. They’re not going back to a strong yen because he’s got to save the economy.”

 

Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally last week told Bloomberg Television that Japan is “absolutely” manipulating its currency to give its domestic companies an unfair advantage.

 

“With the currency manipulation, we just have to get back to the place where the currencies are set by the markets and the free trade agreements really are free trade agreements,” Mulally said on Bloomberg TV June 20.

 

JAMA’s Bookbinder declined to comment on the yen’s effect on Japanese production.

 

 John Mendel, Honda’s U.S. sales chief, said the yen-effect is overestimated.

 

“I’m not going to say it’s much ado about nothing,” Mendel said in an interview. “But it certainly is not a game changer for American Honda because 90 percent of what we sell here, we build here.”

 

Exports from Japanese automakers’ U.S. plants reached a record last year of 335,680 vehicles, up 29 percent from 259,908 in 2011, JAMA said. Most of those cars and trucks go to Canada, JAMA said. 

 

 Source:

Wheels Dealers

Japanese automakers, rebounding from an earthquake and aided by a weakening yen

Japanese automakers, rebounding from an earthquake and aided by a weakening yen, cranked up U.S. vehicle production by 36 percent last year while boosting imports from Japan by 19 percent.

Japanese automakers built 3.3 million cars and trucks in the U.S. last year, up from 2.4 million in 2011, according to new data from the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, a Tokyo-based trade group representing that country’s major carmakers.

That was the most since 2007, when Japanese automakers produced 3.5 million vehicles in the United States, JAMA said.

As U.S. auto sales reached their highest level last year since 2007, Japanese automakers boosted their U.S. market share to 36.9 percent, from 34.9 percent in 2011.

Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and other Japanese automakers rebounded from Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami that crippled output, cutting off critical parts needed to produce vehicles.

“We’re finally seeing recovery from the recession as well as the earthquake and tsunami,” said Ron Bookbinder, general director of JAMA USA. “As long as the U.S. economy and U.S. vehicle demand hold up, U.S. production should continue to rise.”

Japanese automakers are also benefiting from a yen that has weakened by 19 percent against the dollar since Oct. 31, when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe began a campaign to lower Japan’s currency to stimulate the economy. That gives Japanese automakers an extra $1,500 to $2,000 per car and reduces the cost of production in Japan, according to Morgan Stanley.

Imports rise

Auto imports from Japan rose to 1.7 million vehicles last year, from 1.4 million in 2011, according to JAMA. That was the highest since 2008, when Japanese automakers imported 2.1 million cars and trucks into the United States, JAMA said.

The weaker yen also lowers Japanese automakers manufacturing costs in the United States because their cars contain so much content from Japan, said Adam Jonas, an analyst for Morgan Stanley.

He calculates Japanese autos sold in the U.S. contain about 44 percent of Japan-made parts.

“The yen doesn’t sell cars, but it deals you a good hand,” said Jonas, who just returned from meeting with automakers in Japan. “What sells cars is how the Japanese share the yen with consumers, either in the form of a lower price or a better car at a similar price.”

Nissan Motor Co.’s U.S. sales surged 25 percent in May, triple the industrywide gain, after it cut prices on seven models. Honda is introducing a redesigned 2014 Acura MDX with $4,000 in additional features, yet that model’s price is only $1,710 higher, Jonas said.

‘Gain share’

“The Japanese do want to gain share here,” said Jonas, who forecasts Japanese automakers share of the U.S. market will grow to 40 percent next year from 39 percent this year. “They know that Abe’s got their back. He’s not going to let them down. They’re not going back to a strong yen because he’s got to save the economy.”

Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally last week told Bloomberg Television that Japan is “absolutely” manipulating its currency to give its domestic companies an unfair advantage.

“With the currency manipulation, we just have to get back to the place where the currencies are set by the markets and the free trade agreements really are free trade agreements,” Mulally said on Bloomberg TV June 20.

JAMA’s Bookbinder declined to comment on the yen’s effect on Japanese production.

 John Mendel, Honda’s U.S. sales chief, said the yen-effect is overestimated.

“I’m not going to say it’s much ado about nothing,” Mendel said in an interview. “But it certainly is not a game changer for American Honda because 90 percent of what we sell here, we build here.”

Exports from Japanese automakers’ U.S. plants reached a record last year of 335,680 vehicles, up 29 percent from 259,908 in 2011, JAMA said. Most of those cars and trucks go to Canada, JAMA said. 

Source:

Wheels Dealers

The U.S. version of the Honda Fit

Going local

The U.S. version of the standard Fit and its crossover variant will be sourced from Honda’s new assembly plant in Celaya, Mexico. That factory goes online in spring 2014. Honda expects the plant to produce 200,000 Fits and Fit crossovers for the North America annually.

Globally, the gasoline-powered Fit will be offered with a 1.3-liter port-injection or 1.5-liter direct-injection version of Honda’s new Earth Dreams engine, combined with the company’s new Earth Dreams continuously variable transmission. The United States is expected to get only the bigger power-plant. Both engines will be offered with a manual transmission in some markets.

The hybrid gets a 1.5-liter, Atkinson-cycle engine with a seven-speed dual clutch transmission. Electric power comes from a 22-kilowatt electric motor and lithium ion battery.

The gasoline-powered Fit sold just 25,541 units in the first six months of 2013, up 5 percent from the year before.

And Honda’s U.S. hybrids tallied a paltry 9,011 units sold through June, down from 10,712 vehicles in the same period of 2012.

Targeting Toyota

The new hybrid Fit hatchback achieves fuel economy of 36.4 kilometers per liter, or 86 mpg, under Japan’s testing regime. That marks a 30 percent improvement over the hybrid version of the current Fit, which sells big in Japan but never made it to North America.

Those fuel economy figures don’t translate directly into U.S. EPA ratings because the testing cycle differs in Japan.

But the Fit’s Japanese rating edges the 35.4 kilometers per liter, or 83 mpg, rating for the Prius C here. The Prius C, known as the Aqua in Japan, was this country’s second-best selling car for the first half of 2013, trailing only the standard Toyota Prius hatchback.

The new Fit has not yet received an EPA fuel economy rating. But fuel savings from Honda’s new small-hybrid system are big enough to warrant its U.S. introduction, Jiro Yamaguchi, managing officer in charge of global vehicle development, said at a recent test drive event for the Fit five-door at Honda’s Hokkaido proving ground in northern Japan.

“I was not that confident with the previous model, but this model would absolutely sell well in America,” Yamaguchi said.

Launch timing has not been decided. But Yamaguchi said hybrid variants likely will be introduced around the time that the standard gasoline version goes on the market, by next summer.

Source:

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