Six months after having been devastated at home by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, “Japan has experienced its largest overseas investment loss ever as a result of the flood disaster in Thailand,” Japans’s ambassador to Thailand Seiji Kojima told the Bangkok Post. Read More >

The admonitions by Lower Saxony’s premier to wash dirty laundry in the privacy of your office appear to bear fruit – at least for the time being. Volkswagen has agreed to a cease-fire in the war of words with Suzuki. Read More >

If the war of words and press releases between Suzuki and Volkswagen escalates into a legal duel, then the showdown will not happen in a court of law.  Germany’s Handelsblatt learned that the “secret cooperation agreement between Volkswagen and Suzuki specifies arbitration in case of differences.”

Commonly, arbitration is binding in these cases. It may not even come to that. David McAllister, Premier of Volkswagen’s home state Lower Saxony, which holds 20 percent of Volkswagen, intervened over the weekend. Read More >

The trouble with EVs is that they need batteries. Batteries are expensive and heavy, they deplete quickly and are prone to early death. Japanese carmakers and universities are assaulting the problems head-on. They have batteries that go twice as far and live twice as long. But there is a new problem … Read More >

Divorces usually get messy when there is money involved. The Suzuki vs. Volkswagen case is no exception. There are irreconcilable differences. Suzuki wants out, Volkswagen would like to swallow Suzuki whole. The rest are accusations and counter-accusations that are as interesting as divorce papers. In the last days, the Kabuki dace went into a new phase as both sides ratchet up their rhetoric. Read More >

Japanese carmakers are driven out of the country by a rising yen and an urge to diversify their production after the catastrophic March 11 tsunami. A favorite destination is Thailand. Due to free trade agreements with many nations, Thailand increasingly morphs from the Land of Smiles to a South East Asian production and export hub. Now, most car production in Thailand is stopped – again because of killer floods. Read More >

The not quite so rare earth is getting less rare by the day. The stuff that had raised the specter of a Saudi-sized rare earth embargo by the crafty Chinese is being engineered into oblivion.It also shows up en masse in the strangest places. Such as on the bottom of the sea. Read More >

While the discussion about the value of the yen continues (also at TTAC), the exodus from Japan is picking up steam. Toyota is joining other carmakers that quietly turn India into a car export nation to be reckoned with. Toyota’s Chief Engineer Yoshinori Noritake  (above) soon will be able to smile: Toyota’s subsidiary in India will export Toyota’s and Noritake’s “BRIC car”, the Etios, to South Africa in March 2012. Read More >

Mazda confirmed what the world had known for more than a year: Its iconic, Wankel-powered RX8 is going to die. “Mazda RX-8 production will end in June 2012 ,” says a Mazda statement. Mazda celebrates the end of an era in style.  The Hiroshima company lays on a Mazda RX-8 SPIRIT R special edition that will keep the spirit alive after the RX8 has given up its ghost.

Whither the Wankel? Read More >

Again and again, Japanese automakers had been warning that they cannot stomach the strong yen, and that it will eventually cost jobs. Today, the yen stood  at 76.6 to the dollar, and Japanese carmakers are packing. Read More >

In a press conference that is about to begin in a few minutes in Curitiba, Brazil, (see picture above), Nissan’s CEO Carlos Ghosn is expected to announce the expansion of an existing Renault plant, and the building of a new Nissan factory. And possibly even bigger news. Read More >

A day after Mazda had announced that the company “has become the first automaker to successfully develop vehicle components using 1,800 MPa ultra-high tensile steel,” Nissan announced “the world’s first Ultra High Tensile Strength Steel rated at 1.2 gigapascals (GPa).” So who’s on first?

5 minutes of in-depth research revealed that  1,800 MPa equal 1.8 GPa. In the heavy metal business, those Gs are similar to gigahertz or gigabytes in computers: The more, the merrier. Whether Mazda has outdone Nissan or v.v. is also a bit like Pentium and Athlon: It depends. What matters is that cars get both stronger and lighter

Three topics give a car engineer sleepless nights: Read More >

Remember when cars, especially Toyotas, suddenly had a mind of their own, started accelerating, leaving their drivers helpless and hapless? It was in the beginning of 2010. The media cited scores of allegedly killed people. Source: The NHTSA complaint database. When complaints skyrocketed, the media wrote about a dramatic increase of complaints. Now, have a look at the graph above. Read More >

In Europe, black cars are all the rage. According to Dupont’s 2010 Automotive Color Popularity report, the most popular car color in Europe is black, followed by grey. Usually a very dark grey. In Japan, the most popular car color is white. Followed by silver. Usually a bright silver. However, black is coming on strong in Japan. It already is in third place. Always on the lookout for the latest craze, the Japanese car industry is eager to get into black.

Mazda releases its roadster (known stateside as the Mazda MX-5 as a BLACK TUNED special edition for the Japanese market. Read More >

Yesterday brought you news of the tepid Japanese car market that has been down 26 percent for the year. Commenter Alex Nigro DEMANDED the answer to “Are Japanese people still not interested in driving?”

The Nikkei [sub] immediately went on the case and reports today that there is one segment in the industry that is booming: Bicycles. Writes the Nikkei:

“The March 11 earthquake triggered an increase in the number of people who commute to work by bike, and new business are cropping up to accommodate this trend, including high-end park-and-shower services in central Tokyo.” Read More >