November 28, 2011

Honda's North American Plants to Resume Normal Output
Honda Motor Co. said all of its North American plants will resume normal production by the start of next month, following improvement in overall parts supply, which was hit by the Thailand floods. Automotive News reports that production at the company's plants in Canada and the United States was disrupted following Thailand's worst floods in 50 years that led to shortage of parts from flood-hit Thai suppliers. Honda was the hardest hit of the Japanese automakers. The company said the severe flooding in Thailand continues to have some impact to its parts supply, but it has been working closely with its suppliers to fully re-establish the flow of parts for products made in North America. Honda had to shut its assembly plant in the central Thai province of Ayutthaya, closing down 4.7 percent of its global output. Honda operates four vehicle manufacturing plants in the U.S. Read more about them at www.whatisanamericancar.com. For more on their production following natural disasters in Japan and Thailand, click here.

Sales of Midsize Cars Shrink as Buyers Go Smaller
Midsize sedans have been America's favorite cars for decades. That's changing, reports The Detroit News. More people are choosing small cars like the Chevrolet Cruze and even smaller ones like the Honda Fit because they're worried about gas prices and car payments. There's another reason, too: Small cars are no longer the cramped econoboxes of the 1980s and 1990s, and they have many of the same features as larger cars. Compact cars will outsell midsize ones as early as this year, forecasts J.D. Power and Associates. That hasn't happened in at least two decades. Just five years ago, automakers sold nearly 250,000 more midsize cars than compact cars in the U.S. But by 2015, J.D. Power expects compact and subcompact cars to command 20 percent of sales, while midsize cars will account for just 14 percent. Today's small cars are cheaper than their midsize counterparts and far roomier than small cars of recent years. The Environmental Protection Agency defines compact cars as having 100 to 109 cubic feet of passenger and cargo space, while midsize cars have 110 to 119 cubic feet, giving automakers plenty of room to play with. Read more about the rising popularity of small cars here.

Mazda Tries Battery Alternative to Save Gas
Maybe there is an alternative to batteries when it comes to storing energy and saving gas in cars after all. Mazda is about to find out. Engineers have talked about using capacitors instead of batteries for a while, but no automaker indicated it was ready to take the bold step. Now one has. According to USA Today, Mazda announced it has found a way to store energy from regenerative braking in a capacitor, instead of having to lug around heavy batteries, in a move that will save about 10 percent on gas. Mazda is calling it i-Eloop, and it will start showing up on vehicles next year. Besides being lighter, capacitors, an electrical component that temporarily stores large volumes of electricity, can be charged and discharged rapidly and are resistant to deterioration through prolonged use. The energy stored in Mazda's capacitors won't go into acceleration. Rather it will be used for electrical systems such as climate control, audio, and others. Regenerative braking systems are common on hybrids. They use an electric motor or alternator to generate electricity as the vehicle decelerates, thereby recovering a portion of the vehicle's kinetic energy. Click here for details on Mazda’s new battery alternative.

Toyota Shows Off New Sports Coupe
Toyota Motor Corp. unveiled on Sunday a compact sports coupe designed to inject some sportiness into the brand. Developed jointly with Subaru, a unit of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the compact rear-wheel-drive car will arrive in showrooms in the U.S. and Japan in spring. Click here for a picture. Toyota did not provide the name of the U.S. version, but it will be sold in the Japanese market as the Hachiroku. That name, which means 86 in Japanese, evokes the heritage of a pair of 1980s-era compact Corolla model derivatives called the Levin and Sprinter Trueno, which were better known by their internal project name of AE-86. According to The Wall Street Journal, the coupe's debut follows last year's launch of the new Lexus LFA luxury sports car, and reflects company President Akio Toyoda's attempt to bring back a performance element to the lineup, which until recently had abandoned sports cars. “This continues Toyota's sports car bloodline," Mr. Toyoda told reporters after driving a Hachiroku around the Fuji Speedway race track. "The 86 incorporates a sense of driving pleasure that we call 'doki-doki' or 'waku-waku,'" the Japanese for "heart-pounding" or "euphoric." For the latest on Toyota’s new sports coupe, which it unveiled over the weekend, click here.

America's Dirtiest Vehicles of 2012
Nobody wants to be known as the dirtiest, at least not when it comes to air pollution. The good news is that since 1975, overall new passenger car emissions of greenhouse gasses have decreased, and fuel efficiency has increased. The trends seem likely to continue, based partly on technological innovation, partly on more stringent government regulation, and partly on consumer interest and demand. The overwhelming majority of new light duty vehicles to be sold next year are likely to be powered by traditional gasoline internal combustion engines. As promising as new technologies look, manufacturers and regulators must continue to focus on improving the efficiency and cleanliness of gas engines in order to have a significant impact on air quality. To determine its list of America’s Dirtiest Vehicles of 2012, Forbes relied on NHTSA’s database of fuel economy ratings and the EPA’s Green Vehicle Guide, two publicly available resources. It also used the Carbon Footprint calculator, which helps to translate the information from the EPA into a measurement of metric tons of CO2 emissions. Click here to check out a slide show of the dirtiest vehicles of 2012. For analysis of the list, click here.

Around the Web 
Jaguar XF "Sportbrake" Wagon Caught in the Wild [Autoblog]
1991 Acura NSX: Enthusiasts Are Everywhere [Edmunds Inside Line]
Jennifer Lopez Tours Bronx in Fiat Ad -- But it Was L.A. [DriveOn]
10 Most Fuel Efficient Cars Since 1984 [CNN Money]