Japan
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Japan does small cars like no other country on earth--mainly because they have to. The nation's Kei-jidosha car class was set up to make a class of car that was cheaper to run, easier to own and small enough to ease parking and minimize congestion. Now, reports The New York Times, these distinctive cars could be under threat. The Japanese government worries the popular kei class has become a distraction for Japanese automakers--and firms should concentrate more on products also viable for export. Japan's has cultivated market conditions in which its special minicars thrive. Keis are a maximum...
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Japan's Automakers & Government Move To Dominate Fuel-Cell Vehicles
Battery-electric, or fuel-cell? Japanese automakers are divided on the subject--Nissan and Mitsubishi brought electric cars to the market early, but Toyota and Honda have dragged their feet, concentrating instead on developing fuel-cell vehicles. The Japanese government is now on their side, as the...
Antony Ingram -
Japanese Electric-Car Makers Set Up Single Charging Network; Could It Ever Happen In U.S.?
One challenge to more widespread adoption of electric cars is public charging--or rather, the scattered multiple networks of irregularly spaced public charging stations. In Japan, the four major electric-car makers have now joined together to form a new company whose goal is to build a single...
John Voelcker -
Electric-Car Concept From Japan Floats Like A Boat In Emergencies
The Fomm Concept One is an electric car designed to take on a tsunami.
Stephen Edelstein -
Toyota i-Road Trials Start In Tokyo: Another Electric Not-Quite-Car
Toyota is to start real-world consumer trials of its unique i-Road urban electric vehicle in its native Japan. Like its European equivalent, Renault's Twizy, the i-Road aims to combine the comfort and safety of a car with the ease-of-use and convenience of a scooter or motorcycle. While the Twizy...
Antony Ingram -
Temple Priest Reflects On Owning Nissan Leaf Electric Car: Video
One of the first Nissan Leaf owners was a Japanese priest, and three years later he still enjoys it.
Stephen Edelstein -
A few years ago, the concept of an electric car achieving 300 miles on a charge was virtually unheard of. That made one duo's achievement in a Tesla Roadster very special indeed, even if their average speed was relatively low. But now, you can do that with a Tesla Model S and a few eco driving techniques--so how do you move the game on? How about 800 miles? That's what one Japanese electric car-driving team has managed, in an electric-powered Suzuki Every kei-class minivan. In fact, says Autoblog Green, the team's eventual record was 813 miles, negotiating a 15.5-mile course around Ogata...
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2014 Honda Accord Hybrid Supplies Tight In 'Rolling Release'
The 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid is proving unexpectedly popular, both in Japan and the U.S., and that's causing supply challenges for Honda. Two readers have contacted us in the last week to complain that they were unable to purchase the new Accord Hybrid, which Green Car Reports named its 2014 Best...
John Voelcker -
2015 Honda Fit To Have 36-MPG Combined Gas Mileage Rating
The new 2015 Honda Fit will have a combined EPA gas mileage rating of 36 mpg, according to Honda officials. That's the second-highest rating for any five-door subcompact hatchback, and notably improves on the current 2013 Fit's highest rating of 31 mpg. MORE: 2015 Honda Fit - preview In a company...
John Voelcker -
2013 Tokyo Motor Show: Green Car Preview
The 2013 Tokyo Motor Show is almost upon us. And while the Los Angeles Auto Show might hold more relevance for the U.S. market, Tokyo's offerings can never be discounted entirely. Weird and wonderful some may seem but many feature the kind of technology we'll soon be seeing in our road cars. And of...
Antony Ingram -
2014 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid Gets Facelift--In Japan
The Japanese-market version of the 2014 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid gets a few cosmetic changes and improved spot welds.
Stephen Edelstein -
U.S.-Made 2013 Nissan Leaf Has Only 15 Percent Local Content; Here's Why
The 2013 Nissan Leaf electric car is assembled in Smyrna, Tennessee, for North American sales. In fact, Nissan got a low-interest loan for $1.6 billion from the U.S. Department of Energy to make that possible. So why does every 2013 Leaf carry a window sticker saying that its U.S. and Canadian...
John Voelcker -
A lot of media discussion these days seems to focus overly on the low sales of plug-in electric cars (this piece from Friday, for instance). That despite the fact that plug-ins are selling faster than hybrid vehicles did at the same phase of their launch. But automotive history may provide another piece of context for looking at how plug-ins are doing these days. Very first Prius It's the inevitable comparison between the 2013 Nissan Leaf and the 2001 Toyota Prius, that maker's very first hybrid model sold in the U.S. The Prius was actually launched in 1997, but it was sold only in Japan...
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Toyota Sells 23 Hybrids Globally; How Many Can You Name?
By this point, pretty much everyone can identify a Toyota Prius by its shape, and knows that it's a hybrid-electric vehicle. And most people know that Toyota sells many more hybrids as well. But how many of them can you name? Turns out that Toyota offers 23 separate and distinct hybrid models...
John Voelcker -
Toyota Crown Royal Saloon: Driving The 'Hybrid Brougham' Luxury Sedan
Have you ever wondered what a mid-size hybrid sedan would be like if it had the ride and handling of a Sixties Cadillac: big, soft, and wallowy? If so, Toyota has an answer for you, assuming you're willing to travel to Japan. All told, Toyota makes 23 different hybrid passenger vehicles for its...
John Voelcker -
Honda NSX Concept-GT: Honda's Hybrid Racer Revealed
Honda and Acura can't resist teasing us with its latest hybrid sports car, the NSX. We've seen concepts and disguised production models, and now there's a race car ready to hit the circuit, aimed at Japan's premier GT racing series. The Honda NSX Concept-GT is designed to comply with GT500...
Antony Ingram -
Nissan's Twizy Urban Electric Car Tour's Japan's Vacation Spots
When we first drove Renault's tiny Twizy electric car on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza, we got the impression it'd be at its best in some of Europe's warmer climates. In fact, it could be the ideal vacation island rental car. Simple to operate, economical to use, that wind-in-your-hair...
Antony Ingram -
Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi To Install Charging Stations In Japan
Several Japanese automakers have announced a joint project to install charging stations across their home country. Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi will work with each other and existing charging companies to drastically increase the number of regular and quick chargers across Japan, paving the...
Antony Ingram -
Japanese automakers may have cultivated a reputation for occasionally churning out dull, forgettable vehicles, but they certainly make up for it in other ways. Take Nissan, for example. Its bread and butter may be the Versa, but it's also given us the Juke, and the supercar-slaying GT-R. Honda might crank out Civics by the hundred thousand, but they've also given us the NSX, the first-generation Insight and the S2000. And then there's Toyota. Pick one color to describe the Camry, and you'd probably select beige. But in Japan, the automaker is developing something positively neon--the Winglet...
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2014 Mazda Mazda3 Hybrid Announced... But Only For Japan
Mazda hasn't made much of a fanfare about its future hybrid models of late. In fact, you might not even have known the company was planning any, such is its silence over the matter. Perhaps Mazda decided its push with efficient Skyactiv gasoline and diesel engines--and how they reduce the need for...
Antony Ingram -
Nismo Offers To 'Chip' Your Leaf Electric Car For Better Performance
Nice vehicle though the 2013 Nissan Leaf is, it's just a little... tame, for some people. Those people may be intrigued to know that in Japan at least, there's an option to give it a little more performance. We've covered the Nissan Leaf tuned by NISMO (for NISsan MOtorsport) previously, but the...
Antony Ingram -
Kei Cars: Japan's Tiny (But Often High-Tech) Minicars
You don't need us to tell you that the Japanese car market is about as far-removed from the U.S. market as it's possible to get. Where big trucks still dominate in North America, vehicles that almost fit in the average truck's pickup bed make up almost half of all Japanese car sales. Those cars are...
Antony Ingram -
Mitsubishi Issues Second Recall For Outlander Plug-In Hybrid In Japan
Mitsubishi has recalled 4,313 of its Outlander Plug-In Hybrids in Japan to fix a potential defect that it identified last month. The company resumed production of the plug-in hybrid Outlander after discovering the cause of a fire in one lithium-ion battery pack at a dealership in Japan. The first...
John Voelcker -
Sim-CEL Electric Concept Quicker Than Slug-Like Looks Suggest
Not to be judgemental, but getting people interested in a vehicle that looks like the Sim-CEL probably won't be the easiest of tasks. Beauty is more than skin deep, but it's still the first thing you notice--and the slug-like vehicle above is a vehicle to appreciate on engineering, rather than...
Antony Ingram