New car sales in Japan dropped in June, but the drop was not as steep as it was in May.

Domestic sales of new cars and trucks, excluding minivehicles, fell 23.3percent on the year to 225,024 vehicles the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said today. Read More >

„When will it discharge?“ asked a reporter on Monday at Nissan. I ducked under my desk. “In one or two years,” answered Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn. I broke cover when I realized that they were talking about the Leaf powering the house. Read More >

Capacity, weight and price of the battery are the big challenges facing the electric car.  Researchers at Sumitomo have developed a porous, sponge-like metal called “Aluminum-Celmet.” It promises to triple the capacity of lithium-ion batteries. Read More >

Here is a table of the May production numbers of Japan’s bigger carmakers. What do we see? Read More >

“And it goes like [human excrement],” said a freshly minted Nissan spokesperson who requested anonymity on account of him having been on the job for only two weeks. The “it” was Nissan’s latest racecar. It needed a special announcement, because it entered the hall with utmost stealth. None of the usual straight pipe roar.  The Nissan Nismo racer is silent power. Read More >

Eight percent global market share. Eight percent operating profit. And all of that by 2016 – two times eight, get it? In Nissan’s glitzy waterfront headquarters in Yokohama, CEO Carlos Ghosn today presented a six year plan, called “Power 88.” The plan is audacious and auspicious at the same time.

Let’s do the auspicious part first. Read More >

In what could possibly raise eyebrows in Wolfsburg, Suzuki is getting  cozier with Fiat. According to The Nikkei [sub], Fiat will supply Suzuki with 20,000 to 30,000 1.6-liter diesel engines per year. The engines will be built in Europe. Suzuki plans to use the engines in the SX4, which was jointly developed with Fiat, at Suzuki’s assembly plant in Hungary. Read More >

There is no replacement for displacement? How about a roadster “powered” by a 0.66 liter engine (yes, 40 ci, give or take a thimble) that is not allowed to make more than 63 hp? Read More >

When you have nothing else to do down the road and read Japanese car import statistics, and when you will see a small bump of imports from Europe to Japan, remember what you did read here. Toyota will start importing its UK-made Avensis to Japan, where it will go on sale on September 19 for 2.5 million yen ($31,000). Read More >

Carlos Ghosn had reason to be beaming and relaxed last night in Tokyo. Last night, he said “Well, we are going to show you the numbers tomorrow, and they will be significantly higher than in 2010.” Today, Ghosn did not disappoint. Read More >

Japanese automakers are gearing up in earnest to make up for production lost after the March 11 tsunami. Across the island nation, there are new signs of resurgence. They read “we hire” (or Japanese words to that effect.) Automakers are hiring thousands of contract workers that had been let go after the financial crisis. Read More >

The Chinese quest to own a large Chinese automaker with global reach fell on sympathetic ears with someone who should be scared of the yellow peril: Carlos Ghosn. After all,Ghosn is in charge of two automakers. Nissan is the largest Japanese brand in China. Renault is trying to get traction in China. At the Thomson Reuters Newsmaker event in Tokyo today, Ghosn said he does not only expect one or two large Chinese automakers to emerge on the global market, he also understands why.

First, Ghosn had interesting news for those who think there is no money to be made in China: Read More >

The Japanese auto industry might come back to much normal faster that thought. But then there is shippiing. It takes a while to float a few thousand cars across the Pacific. Now add high gas prices and a high demand for fuel efficient cars and you have the reason why Edmunds reports that the U.S. national inventory of the Toyota Prius is down to four-day supply. Ed Larocque, Toyota’s national marketing manager for advanced technology vehicles, told Edmunds that “production in Japan likely will return to full capacity by the end of June.” Which means that that wave of Prii won’t was ashore before end of July. Read More >

Nearly two months ago, American senators complained that China is continuing its “long history of breaking international trade rules” and that there is a “trade barrier that is designed to prevent U.S. automakers from accessing the Chinese market” for electric vehicles.

As Ed Niedermeyer said it back when, there were no new rules. There still aren’t any. If there is one man who should be up to date on rules on electric vehicles around the world and especially in China, then it’s Carlos Ghosn. After all, he did bet the future of two companies, Renault and Nissan on the future of the EV. Also, Nissan is the largest Japanese brand in China, and Nissan’s joint venture partner is Dongfeng, a company owned by China’s central government. So he should know what the rules are.

The trouble is: Carlos Ghosn has no idea. Read More >

A beaming and relaxed Carlos Ghosn dispensed a little insider knowledge tonight in Tokyo and let (surely not involuntarily) slip that there will be “significantly higher numbers tomorrow” when Nissan announces its predictions for the current fiscal year. Read More >