If you are hoping that the Chinese bubble will burst in no time, putting China back on bicycles, then this story is not for you. If you are worried about little people in Asia using up all the precious hydrocarbons we use for our bigger cars, then we must warn you that reading further could be hazardous to your circulatory system. You have been warned. (Read More…)

Volkswagen is betting big on China. Volkswagen wants to double their production capacity in China to three million vehicles by 2013/14. That is roughly half of their current worldwide production. To do that, Volkswagen will finally build their long rumored, but often denied second new plant in China.  A week ago, Volkswagen had announced that they would build a plant with their northern partner FAW in China’s deep south. (Read More…)

Japanese car makers castworried glances at the thinning calendar:  On September 30,  Japan will discontinue their subsidies for environmentally friendly cars. That program had provided  Japan with China-sized double-digit growth rates. All things must pass, and Japanese automakers are getting ready for a German sized Abwrackprämien-aftershock: Everybody is expecting a run  on dealer lots through September and then: Bang. Other than in Germany, where people who never bought new traded in the jalopies for a cheap new car, in Japan there is a huge pull-forward effect. Automakers are preparing for the worst. (Read More…)

Honda is the Chinese version of Rodney Dangerfield. No respect. After a series of strikes, first at Honda’s parts suppliers, then at Honda itself, things looked liked they are calming down. Until yesterday. (Read More…)

Finally something tangible out of the Toyota/Tesla-hookup: Tesla and Toyota will build an electric version of Toyota’s RAV4 compact crossover.  According to a communiqué by Toyota, the two companies signed an agreement to that effect. The E-RAV4 is supposed to be available in the United States in 2012. So fast? Well, it’s as simple as combining the Toyota RAV4 model with a Tesla electric powertrain, says Toyota. The first prototype has already been built and is now undergoing testing. Tesla will “produce and deliver a fleet of prototypes to Toyota for evaluation within this year.” (Read More…)

When I was a young copywriter, I wrote about a catalytic converter that was just newly introduced to Volkswagen. I proudly wrote that it “removes all harmful substances.” The copy came back. I was told to say that it “largely reduces the amount of “ a list of strangely named substances. I said I would never subject the poor Volkswagen customers to such nonsense. I then was called to Wolfsburg and had a meeting with a gruff engineer. He said: “Look, that thing lowers the amount of some bad stuff. But it lets stuff through, it may even create stuff that is much worse. It’s just that nobody is looking for it!” (Read More…)

Remember GM’s Heated Windshield Washer Fire Fiasco? The one where the “Hotshot” unit got so hot that cars went up in flames? GM recalled them. Our friend Carquestions reveals that this doesn’t keep you from buying one.  Why is it still for sale, ask you? Carquestions has the  answer: NHTSA was asleep at the wheel again. Says Carquestions: “NHTSA failed to list it. NHTSA is supposed to issue an equipment recall.” Instead, they just called GM. The part is widely available at a parts counter near you. Nobody is saying this has anything to do with the fact that it is a GM part. That would simply be irresponsible conspiracy-mongering.

Welcome to amateur hour. As reported yesterday, The Wall Street Journal claimed in a story that Toyota’s “data recorders can lose their information if disconnected from the car’s battery or if the battery dies—as could happen after a crash.” Their source was “a person familiar with the situation.” Commentator Carquestions concluded that the source doesn’t know what he or she is talking about. After we wrote about it, Carquestions fingered the not so knowledgeable source as “a secretary within Media Relations at the DOT.”

Instead of talking to a secretary, the WSJ could have done what we did: Call Toyota headquarters in Tokyo. (Read More…)

So far, it had only been the usual people “familiar with the findings” that whispered to the WSJ that the NHTSA has found bupkis in their search for the ghosts in Toyota’s machines, and that there is growing suspicion of the NHTSA that it could have been the wrong foot on the wrong pedal again.

Now, the Financial Times writes for the first time that “US government officials have acknowledged that they have so far found no fault with the carmaker’s electronic throttle controls. They have suggested that many complaints of unintended acceleration that have dogged Toyota stem from driver error rather than defective equipment.” (Read More…)

If you want to play the commodities, forget pork bellies, soybeans or gold. Get into lithium. Not to treat the bipolar disorder exposure to the commodities market could trigger. Lithium to power cars. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry figures that global lithium demand will more than triple from about 92,000 tons in 2010 to 310,000 tons in 2020. Who’s gobbling up the stuff? The automobile industry is expected to use 60 percent of the global lithium supply in 2020, up from less than 5 percent this year. No wonder there is a run on the material. (Read More…)

The ACEA has released their European new car statistics for the month of June. One look at the picture tells you what is happening: With the cash for clunkers effects slowly working their way out of the system, Europe is settling into a new normal. In June, the market was down 6.9 percent, but for the first six months, with 7,285,487 new cars registered, the market in the EU27 is pretty much what it was in the same period last year. Compared with the first six months of 2008, the market decreased by 10.3 percent, but those were the good old pre-carmageddon days. (Read More…)

We finally know who’s responsible for shutting down Nissan assembly lines in Japan and the U.S.A. The shortage of a critical computer chip stopped Hitachi from making ECUs, which in turn stopped Nissan from making cars. For days, the identity of the lackadaisical chipmaker had been kept under wraps. Now, the culprit has been unmasked. (Read More…)

The shortage of a critical computer chip that Hitachi desperately needs to supply Nissan with ECUs  now threatens to affect U.S. production. Yesterday, Nissan warned that they will close down Japanese assembly lines. Today, Nissan COO Officer Toshiyuki Shiga said that production in the U.S. may be halted until the chip shortage is solved. (Read More…)

While other countries are still struggling with the electric car in itself, Japan is already in the middle of the big charging station craze. TTAC will continue keeping an eye on these developments. No country is better suited for self serve chargers than Japan, where you can buy anything from a vending machine, from flowers to condoms, from rice to the infamous girls’ panties. According to credible statistics, there are 23 people per vending machine in Japan. Soon, there will be more. Vending machines. (Read More…)

It used to be a common joke in China that makers of refrigerators entered the car business by adding wheels to their refrigerators. (Don’t laugh: GM sold their Frigidaire business in 1979, after 50 years of making refrigerators.) Now, BYD comes full circle. They will enter the home appliance business. (Read More…)