For nearly a year, readers of TTAC have known what’s coming now. As reported back when, Fuji Heavy’s Subaru will end its 54-year history of producing minivehicles in February next year. Read More >

“This is the worst situation we’ve faced since the war,” a source close to Toyota told the Yomiuri Shimbun. The Japanese car industry is facing post-war-like shortages when it comes to auto parts. Toyota is short 150 parts positions, which can be anything from a bolt to a complete dashboard.

Dealerships are empty – of cars. Test drive cars do double duty as display vehicles. “We get a lot of customers coming in, but we don’t have cars to sell them,” a salesperson told the Tokyo paper. Read More >

Shortage of parts from Japan after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami makes Ford idle plants all over the world: Read More >

Toyota wasn’t the only Japanese manufacturer getting hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Toyota isn’t even the hardest hit – at least not in percentages.

Japanese output of the eight major Japanese carmakers’ plunged 57.5 percent in March from a year earlier to 387,567 units. That is some 465,000 units less than planned, The Nikkei [sub] reports. Here are the March Japan production numbers for the individual automakers: Read More >

Toyota published production and sales results for the 2010 fiscal year. The fiscal is a Japanese oddity. It starts on April 1 and goes through March 31. Financial data will be announced on May 11.

Nothing highly unusual for the full fiscal. Japan is down, overseas is up. Read More >

The Detroit Free Press reports, almost giddily, that GM will almost certainly replace Toyota as the world’s largest automaker by volume this year, as tsunami-related production problems will continue to plague the Japanese automaker. The graph above, by IHS Global Insight [via AutoObserver], shows that the impacts of the tsunami will continue to be felt well into next year, and that Japanese production will likely fall permanently by around 15%. Toyota’s full-year production could be cut by around 20%, possibly bumping the automaker to the third position in the global volume race, after GM and VW.

Advertising on the side of your corporate fleet is a great idea. Especially if you are an electric company and you have electric cars.

Japan’s TEPCO just changed its mind. Read More >

In a surprise press conference that had not been confirmed as late as last night, Toyota’s president Akio Toyoda laid out plans for Toyota getting back to normal. Bottom line: Toyota hopes to be back to normal by the end of the year.

“To all the customers who made the decision to buy a vehicle made by us, I sincerely apologize for the enormous delay in delivery,” Akio Toyoda said. Read More >

When the first rumors of a possible tie-up between Volkswagen and Isuzu were floating around, they were vigorously denied by Isuzu, and meekly (“currently not on the agenda”) denied by Volkswagen. Here they are again. The Nikkei [sub] writes without the usual qualifications that „Isuzu Motors Ltd. and Volkswagen AG have begun negotiating a tie-up involving the mutual supply of truck engines and related technologies, a move that could create a formidable force in emerging markets.”

According to the report, if that engine deal progresses well, “they will also consider acquiring stakes in each other.” Read More >

After Nissan’s Leaf drove away with the European Car Of  The Year title and the Volt snagged the American Car Of  The Year title, what else was there to win? The WCOTY, of course. The champion of champions, the World Car Of The Year. And the winner is … Read More >

Nissan’s Iwaki engine plant is back on line, as this video from Nissan’s in-house channel attests. The plant, located some 35 miles away from the stricken Fukushima power plant, was severely damaged by the quake and had been off-line ever since March 11. Read More >

During an intimate round table in Shanghai, usually well informed reporters were harping on the influence of radiation on Toyota sales. I expected the heads of communication of Toyota worldwide and Toyota China to blurt out: “Radiation? What impacts sales is the fact that we don’t have any cars to sell.” But they kept their cool in the face of a hot topic.

After a month-long quake-induced hiatus, Toyota restarted production in all Japanese factories on Monday. In the meantime, the shockwaves of the tsunami ripple through the supply lines. Read More >

Honda sources the vast majority of parts and materials needed for North American production in North America. “However, for global efficiency, a few critical parts continue to be supplied from Japan,” says Honda in a statement. Honda restarted production of component parts for North American plants Monday, April 4 at several Honda plants in Japan. However, those need their own parts and supplies. Therefore, Honda’s component production in Japan continues to run at approximately 50 percent of the original production plan.

This of course impacts North American production. Read More >

Some of Nissan’s Leaf cars were beset by the opposite of the alleged sudden unintended acceleration:  Sudden unintended arrest. Once started and turned off, the Leafs refused to start again. Which of course would turn the Leaf into a PR embarrassment: Who wants the first serious mass market EV to be a non-starter? After having received complaints both in Japan and the U.S., Nissan decided to do something about it. Read More >

If The Nikkei [sub] is informed correctly, and given the recent track record with these matters, that’s a big if, then workers in the Japanese auto and electronics industries will be compensated for the hardships they endured after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami:  They will get two extra days off per week. According to today’s Nikkei story, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association proposed that manufacturing industries should alternate production holidays this summer as a way to conserve electricity amid a constrained supply.

“Automakers, for example, could halt production on Mondays and Tuesdays, with electronics firms taking Tuesdays and Wednesdays off, according to JAMA’s plan, which was presented at a briefing on energy-saving measures hosted by the Japan Business Federation, better known as Nippon Keidanren,” writes the Nikkei. “On each day, the shutdowns would extend industry-wide.” Honto? Read More >