The Japanese press is making a big to-do out of the combined 2009 sales of Volkswagen and Suzuki. Or rather out of the fact that the two together sold more than Toyota. „Suzuki-VW Beats Toyota In Global Sales In ’09” headlines The Nikkei, as if the two would be one company.
That the two of them could easily crush Toyota is no news to TTAC readers. When we announced the VW-Suzuki nuptials on Dec 9, 2009, we said: “Suzuki has an output of 2.36 million units a year; added to VW’s sales, Toyota would be toast.”
The Nikkei did the adding, and writes: Read More >
On Sunday, Tokyo’s Nikkei worried aloud that Toyota’s recall may snowball into Europe. The ball is rolling: Today, the Nikkei reports that Toyota “expects to recall roughly 2.0 million vehicles in Europe to fix defective gas pedals.”
The Nikkei’s source is “a person familiar with the matter .“ Because Toyota is still working out which cars exactly need to go to the shop, “it’s unclear when the recall will be formally announced, the person said.” Read More >
Today’s Nikkei [sub] says that the latest Toyota recall “is seen as a major dent in the side of the leading Japanese automaker’s reputation as a builder of reliable automobiles.” Read More >
A lot of bandwidth is wasted in the blogosphere about how closed the Japanese car market supposedly is to foreign imports. Which of course is baloney. Paul Niedermeyer debunked the propaganda, and said: “Want to import cars to Japan? It’s one of the easiest countries to do so.“
In case people have not really gotten it, The Nikkei [sub] has drawn them a picture. It painstakingly lists how many cars were made by Japanese manufacturers at home and abroad. It shows how many cars were exported, and how many were imported. Read More >
Now that Japan has said kankei nai ne (who cares, not worth the trouble) and opened their cash for clunkers program to American imports, even if they did not go through mandatory homologation, and even if they weren’t rated by the Japanese government to get 35.5 mpg or better, which car is the first to qualify? You are looking at it – very closely. It’s a, it’s a, it’s a … Read More >
Toyota plans to roughly double its global production of hybrid vehicles to 1 million units in 2011. On the surface, this plan doesn’t sound too ambitious. Hybrids are flying off dealer’s lots in Japan. About 350,000 hybrids were sold in Japan last year, accounting for 11.9 percent of total sales. Toyota’s Prius took the lion’s share with 209,000 units sold. Honda’s Insight made up for another 94,000 units. Less that 50,000 were “others.”
And herein lies problem number one for Japanese hybrids: Read More >
Osamu Suzuki said today he would probably refuse advances by Volkswagen if they would want to get deeper in bed with their new Japanese bride.
“When Suzuki becomes a bigger and more successful company, Volkswagen will probably want to buy more of our shares,” Suzuki said. “If that happens, Suzuki will probably respond by saying, ‘Let’s continue as we are.'”
Japanese car manufacturers, reeling from a doubly whammy at home (down 9.3 percent) and in the U.S.A. (down 21.2 percent) are looking increasingly to growth markets such as China (up 45 percent) and India (up 18.7 percent.) Large players like Nissan, Honda and Toyota in China, and Suzuki in India, have been there for years. Now there is a virtual stampede. A collection of news from today’s Nikkei [sub]: Read More >
Today’s Nikkei [sub] clarified the Japanese position on US cars qualifying for Nipponese cash fur clunkers money. The program offers up to 250,000 yen ($2,800) in subsidies to buyers of cars that meet Japanese fuel efficiency standards.
According to the Nikkei, about 30 percent of U.S. imports to Japan enter the country through the “Preferential Handling Procedure,” that does not require them to pass Japanese fuel efficiency tests. These cars, which had been excluded from the program, will now be considered – based on mileage data collected in the U.S. Good luck with that. Read More >
Recent comments on today’s Japan’s C4C program post and 487 billion similar web posts since Al Gore invented the internet make it clear that there is a lingering misunderstanding about the import of US cars to Japan. Specifically, that Japan has managed to stave off a tsunami of Chevy Cavaliers and all the other wonderful American cars that the rest off the world has been snapping up by the imposition of certain restrictions, barriers or other obstacles. It’s way time to shed a bit of light on the Toyota Cavalier and this subject of great import. Read More >
U.S. auto makers need to find something else to kvetch about. The Japanese Trade Ministry said kankei nai ne (who cares, or more polite words to the same effect) and changed the Nipponese cash for clunkers program. If you trade in your clunker for a car imported from the United States, you now qualify for a government handout. According to Reuters, clunker cash will be given to buyers of “suitable cars imported under the “Preferential Handling Procedure,” a deal agreed with the United States in 1986 to speed the import of models that sell less than 2,000 units a year.” Under this program, cars are not properly homologated in Japan, and receive no official mpg rating. The lack of that rating excluded them from Japanese clunker largess. Read More >
Toyota plans to roughly double its global production of hybrid vehicles to 1 million units in 2011, The Nikkei writes. Toyota alerted parts suppliers that it intends to roll out about 800,000 hybrids domestically in 2010, around 900,000 in 2011 and roughly 1.1 million in 2012. Read More >
Yesterday, Volkswagen became the Suzuki’s top shareholder. VW transferred $2.4b in return for a 19.9 percent stake in Suzuki. Suzuki turned around immediately and used $1b of the money received to buy stock in Volkswagen. Consider the couple as intertwined.
With the marriage sealed, both companies went right to work. Read More >
Volkswagen and Suzuki aren’t wasting any time in consummating their marriage. VW is thinking of providing its hybrid technology to Suzuki. This is what Ulrich Hackenberg, head of VW’s Forschung und Entwicklung (R&D) told The Nikkei [sub] on the sidelines of the NAIAS in Detroit. As usual for a tight-lipped R&D guy, Hackenberg did not volunteer any details, timing or models.
Unusual for a usually tight-lipped R&D guy, Hackenberg said Suzuki has excellent technologies, including low-cost production know-how, and that the two firms have a lot to learn from each other. He also said VW will support its Japanese partner in China, where Volkswagen has a commanding market share, and where Suzuki needs help.
“What Volkswagen hybrid technology?” you will surely ask. Read More >
Recent Comments