In the past year, Hyundai has improved its business a lot in the global automobile industry.   From the fourth quarter of last year to the third quarter of this year, Hyundai-Kia sold around 4.5 million cars worldwide, while Toyota sold 5.46 million units in the same period.  However, the Korean automaker Hyundai could not make an impression in the Japanese car market, even though it is operating there for the last 8 years.  On the other hand, the Japanese automaker Toyota is gaining ground in Korea by challenging Hyundai-Kia on their home turf.

Last week, Korean automaker Hyundai made an official announcement about its withdrawal from the Japan automobile market.  Hyundai has maintained a low-key profile in the Japanese market for last 8 years and it could not even achieve its target of 800 cars this October.  Even though Hyundai won’t sell new cars anymore in Japan, it continue servicing its customer base in Japan.  According to Hyundai, it is better to concentrate on more up-and-coming auto markets like China, USA and India than to make investment in struggling markets like Japan.

Hyundai’s 8 years of incompetence in Japanese auto market and awkward withdrawal from Japan is certainly disappointing.  Moreover, Toyota is fast becoming one of the popular brands of imported cars in Korea.  Toyota created impression on Korean buyers through their luxury sedans marketed under the Lexus brand.  And recently, Toyota has conquered mid-priced car market section in Korea, where Hyundai-Kia, SsangYong and other Korean car makers were dominating.  Toyota recently introduced 4 new models of hybrid version of Prius and the mid-sized car Camry in Korea and could sell over 5,000 cars of the recently-released vehicles in just three weeks.

Along with Toyota, other Japanese Automakers who are quiet popular amongst the Korean drivers are Nissan and Honda.  Last year Honda sold about 12,400 cars and leading the imported auto brands in Korea whereas combining sales of Nissan and Toyota last year in Korean market was over 21,000 cars and this year it is expected to be more than previous year.

Quitting passenger car sales in Japan looks a sensible move by Hyundai.  Convincing Japanese buyers to try Korean vehicles is quiet a challenging task.  Japanese buyers have different buying habits compared to other Asians.  Japanese car buyers that buy foreign vehicles mostly prefer European brands. Although Hyundai is giving up now, it can not afford to lose this opportunity as Japan is one of the largest automobile markets in Asia.  Auto industry watchers have expectation that the Korean automaker will reform and re-enter the Japanese auto market in next 2 or 3 years.   Hyundai simply needs to revise and improve its existing strategies, learn from their past mistakes, and when the time is right re-enter Japanese auto market with a strong marketing message that promises refinement, good quality and most importantly differentiation from Japanese domestic brands.

Technorati Tags: Hyundai, automobile, Toyota, Japanese car, Japan

Are you a safety conscious car buyer? Then you should definitely read this post. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety based in Virginia, USA recently released its List of the safest cars for 2010, after conducting a tough test of protecting people in front, rear, side, and also rollover crashes. Eight SUVs and nineteen passenger cars received top safety awards. Ford and its Volvo brand bagged the highest – six awards, followed by Volkswagen and Subaru with five awards for outstanding safety each.

The test for safety ratings by the Insurance Institute has become a lot tougher this year, so .fewer cars made it to the top list this year. The insurance Institute has introduced a new test to determine overall safety of a car, by testing the strength of car roof in case of a rollover. In order to pass the safety test, the car roof has to withstand a force equal to four times the weight of the car without crushing the roof five inches inward.

Honda cars received top honors in the safety ratings. Honda Civic 4-door models with optional electronic stability control, as well as, Honda SUVs – Honda Element and Jeep Patriot with optional side torso airbags, won safety awards. Honda’s achievements do not stop there. Honda also produced the least polluting and most fuel efficient cars on American roads as per the U.S. government projections for 2009.

However, in a surprise twist, the world’s largest automaker, Toyota, did not receive any safety awards this year. This was partly because of the fact that Toyota cars did not have car roofs strong enough to withstand rollover. A number of vehicles missed this safety list because of the new roof strength rating requirements.

Honda also leads the U.S. market in electric/gasoline hybrid cars, for being the cleanest and most fuel efficient vehicles. So looking at these achievements, if you are looking for good, clean, fuel efficient and safest cars, Honda may be the perfect choice for you.

Technorati Tags: vehicles, safest cars, Honda

Considering the growing need for eco-friendly cars, Panasonic Corporation Japan has developed a new technology for binding together Lithium-ion batteries meant for laptop PCs to power electric cars.  Panasonic claims to have discovered this new and cheaper method for connecting the cells by using existing production facilities.  It was Tesla Motors who were the pioneers in building a battery pack made up of 6,831 laptop PC battery cells for the Roadster. Panasonic went a step ahead by producing lithium ion and nickel metal hydride batteries for Toyota’s hybrid and plug-in vehicles.

Panasonic Japan is in this business of manufacturing lithium-ion batteries for computers for quiet sometime now.  They also manufacture the normal bulky rechargeable batteries meant for cars and other vehicles.  However, with the announcement of using computer batteries for cars, Panasonic has become first electronic company to venture into advanced battery making for automobiles.  Usually these kinds of batteries for electric vehicles are being created by established automakers or small companies which specialize in with manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles.

According to Panasonic, they can cut down the price of manufacturing batteries for electric cars by using their existing battery plant and production facilities.  Till now,  battery packs for electric vehicles are specially designed or assembled to meet specific design requirements and this drives the cost of electric car up compared to other gas vehicles. Having most of the facilities already set up, Panasonic  has this advantage of succeeding in this business of manufacturing lithium-ion batteries for automobiles.  While most of the automakers like Ford, Nissan and General Motors are competing for building or converting existing assembly lines, Panasonic has actually worked on cost cutting technology.

Despite of having all facilities, Panasonic still has a long way to go and hit the market with its latest batteries.  It may take about four years for these newly developed batteries for cars to be available in the market.  These  batteries can also be used to store electricity from fuel cells, wind turbines and residential solar panels, apart from powering electric cars. Thus, these batteries also have a good potential market in the home renewable energy sector.

Talks were on for a long time about Panasonic entering automotive market with its latest battery but now the real story is out.  Even though it’s prime competitor, Sony has announced long back about creating batteries for automobiles, but it is Panasonic which has actually done it.  Other companies like LG, BYD and Samsung are also trying to venture in to this market of manufacturing automotive batteries.

Technorati Tags: electric cars, Panasonic, Japan, electric vehicles, automotive, Sony

Toyota Motors whose popular hybrid car Prius posted top-most sales in Japan for the 6th consecutive month.  Apart from being an fuel efficient car, something which helped the domestic sales of Prius is the Japanese government policy to offer subsidies and tax breaks for purchasing eco friendly vehicles.

In this gloomy situation of Auto Industry, Toyota Prius is turning out to be a rare bright spot.  With Toyota Prius you can drive about 38 Km per liter.  In heavy traffic situation, hybrid cars like Toyota Prius rely completely on their electric motors and thus burn no gas.  As of now Toyota’s Prius, which works on both electricity and gasoline, continues to dominate Japanese auto sector.

According to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association (JADA), Japan’s biggest automaker – Toyota sold over 26,900 Prius hybrid cars this October, which is quiet a big leap considering its October sales last year which was just around 6,341 units.

After facing losses for three consecutive quarters, the biggest auto maker from Japan – Toyota – has finally hit the bull’s eye in the month of July and September by gaining profit of around 22 billion yen (US $240 million).  Toyota Motor Corp has also reduced its expected loss by 50% for this financial year. Increasing domestic demand of Prius has helped Toyota to post a surprise profit this quarter.

Meanwhile for the fourth consecutive month,  Honda’s Fit – a people carrier, occupied the second position, selling around 15,440 units in Japan. Compared to last year’s October sales Honda Fit has gained about 26.7 percent more sales. To boost its sales, Honda wants to come up with the hybrid version of the Fit next year. Even though the Fit is not a hybrid vehicle, it still eligible for all subsidies and tax breaks given by government as it is fuel-efficient vehicle.

This October third position was occupied by Vitz subcompact from Toyota whereas, the direct competitor of Toyota’s Prius – Honda Insight occupied ninth position.

Considering the environmental concern, and the initiative taken by the Japanese government, Japanese auto market is experiencing increase in the demand for environmentally friendly and fuel efficient cars.  These eco-friendly cars are going to dominate for few more years.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Toyota Prius, hybrid cars, Automobile, Honda Fit

According to a recent annual survey for 2009, conducted by – Consumer Reports for Car Reliability in America, Japanese Vehicles were found to be the most reliable. American consumers favor Japanese brands like Honda and Toyota for reliable vehicles.  This substantiates the first class engineering of Japanese Automakers who create world class automobiles.

In the Consumer Reports Survey – on the basis of reliability and dependability – Japanese cars have comfortably outperformed American models.  Out of 48 models which topped the reliability scores, around 36 were from Asia and 33 models were from Japan alone.  Japanese models which topped the list in this vehicle reliability survey are Toyota with 18, Honda with 8, Nissan with 4 and Subaru with 3 models.

The only American automaker which made to the top in the reliability survey is Ford. Many of the Ford models such as mid sized Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan are consistently near the top of their respective classes.

On the whole,  Japanese automobiles are consistently performing well in the reliability survey.   All the Japanese brands such as Toyota, Nissan, Subaru, Honda and Acuras were ranked average or above.

Toyota, with its Scion and Lexus brands was the winner with 18 models.  The only vehicle that failed in the reliability survey was the Lexus GS AWD.   Toyota’s model Scion which is youth-oriented brand occupied first position for the second year in a row.

Honda Insight was judged as the most reliable car – It is s 27 times more likely to have a problem than Volkswagen Touareg – the least reliable vehicle, as per the survey.

The Nissan’s  performance was quite good as four of its models including the Infiniti QX56 and Nissan Armada SUVs performed to reviewers’ satisfaction.

Like every year, most of the Subaru models were considered very reliable. Except for Subaru’s turbocharged sports car Impreza WRX, all the other models are average or above.

Technorati Tags: Japanese Vehicles, Japan, Honda, Toyota, Japanese cars, Japanese automobiles, Honda, Acura, Nissan, Subaru

Last weekend I went to attend Tokyo Motor Show 2009 which started on October 24.  This year, because of the recession the show was dominated mostly by Japanese car makers and only ten automakers have participated, compared to 35 participants in the last show held two years ago.  There were number of concept vehicles trying to make impact on spectators, but something which caught my attention was some of the Weird and Wonderful Vehicles.

These weird looking vehicles are not only different from the conventional vehicles but they also makes you think about car features which we take for granted – such as

• Is steering wheel really needed to run the automobile?
• Why is brake pedal or accelerator pedal needed?
• Is it necessary for vehicles to have four wheels or just one wheel is sufficient?

These concept cars at Tokyo Motor Show makes us think with their unconventional approach in designing future generation automobiles which promise to change all the rules.  Here are some weird and wonderful vehicles I came across at the Tokyo Motor Show.

Toyota unveiled a wonderful model Toyota FT-EV II – a zero emission electric car which is partly recharged with solar cell and is without any steering wheel, brake and accelerator pedal.  With the help of Joysticks alone driver can control entire functionality of car.  To give driver a better vision of front vehicle, windshield extends farther downwards.

Honda have displayed their concept Honda U3-X – an electric unicycle which uses only one wheel instead of usual two or four wheels.  The U3-X is basically a personal mobility device which operates on the principle of gyroscope.

Other unconventional of models of Honda which I liked are

• EV-Monpal – an electric supermarket scooter which contains comfortable padded chair.
• Skydeck – a minivan with the seats which seems like float and is fixed to the center console without attaching to the floor.

Subaru debuted their model Subaru Hybrid Tourer which comes up with the concept that even for big vehicles, only one door is needed.

I also found the Yamaha electric motorcycles very impressive. Yamaha’s models EC-f and EC-fs are electric vehicles specially designed to make motorcycle ride easier as well as familiar amongst all age group people regardless of riding experience.
And, Nissan displayed its Land Glider electric car which is a perfect combination of a car and motorcycle.

This event will last till November 3, and I recommend you all to visit it if you happen to be in Tokyo during this time of the year.

Technorati Tags: Japanese car, concept vehicles, weird and wonderful vehicles, Toyota, Honda, Subaru

Competition amongst the Japan’s domestic car makers has tremendously increased due to the introduction of electric vehicles. After Mitsubishi Motors introduced their oval shaped electric vehicle i-MiEV in July 2009, many Japanese car makers are trying to implement the electric car technology in their latest models to improve their sales.

Electric car models which will soon hit the Japanese market are i-MiEV from Mitsubishi, Plug-in-Stella from Subaru, EV II model from Toyota, next generation Swift and Alto from Suzuki and Nissan will launch Nissan Roox, Leaf and Land Glider.

The big automakers from Japan will be displaying their latest concept cars based on the electric car technology in Tokyo Motor Show 2009 starting from October 24, 2009. If you visit this grand show, you can get a good idea of cars which are expected to come out in near future.

Though there is lot of hype being created about electric vehicles, but one question is always being asked which is ‘whether electric vehicles can really help to control global warming?’ Well we will have to wait and watch to see the outcome.

There are many advantages of an electric car, but the main benefit of Electric car over conventional gasoline powered car is that fewer components are required to build up an electric car, due to which assembly of cars become easier and even small companies can produce such cars. Many major Japanese car makers are now are investing heavily in design and development of electric cars.

So would the electric vehicles become commercially popular as soon as they are released? According to critics, Electric Vehicles still have a long way to go due to two major shortcomings – its price tag and short range of commuting. For example, i-MiEV costs about 4.6 million yen compared to just around 1 million yen for a gasoline powered compact car. Also, the electric model i-MiEV can cover the distance of just about 120 km, at the speed of about 40-60 km/hr; after that the batteries need to be recharged.

This gives us clear idea that to travel long distances using electric vehicles, there should be good infrastructure for recharging the car batteries throughout the country. A normal charge at 200 volts takes about seven hours which makes this further impracticable. A high speed charger which can charge the batteries in just 30 minutes looks like a promising solution, but at present, the high speed electric charger stations available in Japan are limited.

Electric Vehicles also have a positive side; the Japanese government has declared exemption of car tax on all environmental friendly vehicles including electric car. Also, a typical recharge of battery costs just one tenth of normal gasoline tank fill. So, though the Electric vehicles are bit costly, their low cost of maintenance can compensate for your initial investment.

Technorati Tags: Japan, electric vehicles, Electric car, Japanese car, Japanese

Have you ever wondered how fish swim in shoals without ever colliding with one another? Japanese car maker Nissan has taken inspiration from the animal kingdom to design a tiny car robot Eporo -- that mimics the behavior of fish when they swim in shoals. The car robot Eporo can move in a fleet without bumping into their traveling companions. Nissan believes that this new technique can be used in future cars as a crash avoidance system.

Last year, Nissan had unveiled BR23C robot car which was again inspired from the behavior of bumblebees in avoiding collisions. So, this is the second time Nissan is looking for inspiration for its designs from the animal world. The Japanese automaker did extensive research as to how large schools of fish can swim in shoals without bumping into each other. It says Eporo imitates three rules of fish movement

• traveling side by side
• avoiding crashes
• keeping close to other members of the group

The car robots also can form the most efficient group formation to maneuver through tight spots by constant communication with each other

The new three-wheeled robot Eporo, which is designed to travel in a group of up to seven vehicles, would be shown off at Ceatec Japanese design fair in Tokyo on October 6. The car robots use laser range finders and ultra-wideband radio to measure the distance between each other as well as other obstacles. The data is constantly shared between the traveling companions via radio, allowing the group to travel smoothly as a “shoal” without colliding into each other.

You can see a preview of the Eporo in the following Japanese video

Eporo stands for Episode O (Zero) Robot. That funny sounding name means zero episodes, as in zero accidents. The Eporo is the first robot car designed to move in a group by sharing its position and other information.? Nissan aims to incorporate this technology into future passenger cars to reduce accidents and traffic jams.

Technorati Tags: Japanese car, Japan, car robot