Mazda Motor Corporation announced that a Job One ceremony was held at AutoAlliance International Inc. in Flat Rock, Michigan to celebrate the first United States production of the North American all-new Mazda6.

The all-new Mazda6 inherits and further evolves the sporty styling and superb driving performance of the first generation Mazda6. The North American model features a larger body and greater engine displacement to meet the particular demands of the North American market with handling and comfort being optimized for North American road conditions. Two spirited engines will be available: the newly developed 2.5-liter direct injection I-4 that drives the European and Japanese versions of the all-new Mazda6 and –for extra performance– the 3.7-liter V6 that powers the Mazda CX-9, the 2008 North American Truck of the Year.

Speaking at the ceremony, AutoAlliance International’s president and CEO, Gary A. Roe said, “The North American all-new Mazda6 has a special significance for us because it was developed exclusively to meet the needs of the North American market and is being built right here at AAI. Our dedication to build quality cars will ensure the Mazda6 succeeds amid a very challenging sales environment.”

James J. O’Sullivan, president and CEO of Mazda North American Operations added, “The midsize sedan segment is crowded with many of the best vehicles from Asia, Europe, and the US. Even under these circumstances, we are confident the North American all-new Mazda6 will be highly competitive.”

Mazda’s president and CEO, Hisakazu Imaki, remarked, “It is an honor to be here at AutoAlliance International to celebrate the North American all-new Mazda6 production kickoff. AutoAlliance International symbolizes the strong cooperative relationship that has benefited both Mazda and Ford for many years. Going forward, we will continue to provide our customers with the highest quality products in order to further strengthen Mazda’s presence in North America. This will bring us closer to achieving the targets of our mid-term Mazda Advancement Plan.”

Also attending the ceremony was Garry L. Sommerville, chairman of the UAW Local 3000, and approximately 900 AutoAlliance International employees.

Mazda began vehicle production in North America at Mazda Motor Manufacturing (USA) Corporation in 1987. The MMUC plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, became a joint venture between the Mazda Motor Corporation and the Ford Motor Company in 1992, when the name was changed to AutoAlliance International, Inc. Previous Mazda models produced at the facility include the Mazda MX-6 and Mazda 626. The first generation Mazda6 commenced production at AAI in 2002.

Source: http://www.mazda.com/publicity/release/2008/200807/080722.html

Technorati tags:

Mazda Vehicles, Japanese Engines

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced its consolidated financial results for the fiscal first quarter ended June 30, 2008.

Consolidated net sales and other operating revenue amounted to JPY 2,867.2 billion, a decrease of 2.2% due to factors including the negative currency transaction effect.

Consolidated operating income, which amounted to JPY 221.3 billion, remained at approximately the same level compared to the same quarter a year ago, due to a decrease in incentives for automobile business in North America, increased profit mostly from increased automobile unit sales, and cost reduction efforts, despite the negative impact of exchange rates, the impact of increased raw material costs, and increases in selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses.

Honda set an all-time record for the first quarter for income before income taxes and net income as well as an all-time record for any quarter for equity in income of affiliates.

At the board of directors meeting held today, Honda resolved to pay JPY 22 per share for the fiscal first quarter dividend with the record date of June 30, 2008. The total dividend to be paid for the entire fiscal year is expected to be JPY 88 per share.

Source: http://world.honda.com/news/2008/4080722British-International-Motor-Show/

Technorati tags:
Honda, Motorcycle & Automobile

Honda’s low-emission sportscar study model has been revealed at the British International Motor Show, at ExCel, London.

The lightweight roadster design study is a concept showing Honda’s core engineering principals, designing stylish and exciting cars that are also environmentally responsible.

Named the OSM (for Open Study Model), the two-seater joins the confirmed-for-production CR-Z sports hybrid and FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell car on the Honda stand at the show.

“We’re trying to show that low emission cars can be attractive,” says Andreas Sittel, Project Leader for OSM. “There is no reason why a car that’s more environmentally friendly can’t look great too - and be sporty and fun to drive.”

The concept for the project was ‘Clean and Dynamic’ - and this direction was followed for both the exterior and interior design, ensuring a joined-up, consistent ‘language’ between the two. One example of this can be seen at the rear of the car, where the body actually extends into the cabin between the seats.

The exterior design is a balance of smooth, rounded curves and sharp lines to provide definition in key areas. The headlights are cleverly integrated into the front end, stretching from the nose to the top of the wheel arches to look more like a part of the original body.

Inside, this uninterrupted, fluid approach is continued, with long sweeping curves extending from both door panels to form a frame for the instrument display. The concept for the dashboard was to avoid creating the traditional block of ‘heavy’ colour and material in front of the driver; in keeping with the clean and lightweight theme. For that reason, the dash is broken into sections, with the most important instruments in direct line-of-sight of the driver.

Key information is displayed in a rounded, enclosed central binnacle, with levels and figures in bright blue on a black background. This matches the trim inside the car, with the seats and door furniture trimmed in a new, gloss-effect blue leather, accompanied by white leather sections, in line with the exterior body colour, a one-off paint called Mystic Pearl.

The driver’s main controls and functions are distributed in an intuitive layout, close at hand on a panel that curves downwards to the right of the driver. A centrally-mounted semi-sequential gear-shift points towards a fun-to-drive transmission, along with paddle shifts either side of the steering wheel. Integrated into the gearshifter itself is a red ignition ‘start’ button, which reinforces the sporty direction of the car.

The Honda OSM was designed by Honda’s R&D facility in Offenbach, Germany. It’s the latest example of the young talent being developed within Honda’s design studios in Europe - following the Honda Small Hybrid Sports Concept (Geneva 2007) and the Accord Tourer Concept (Frankfurt 2007).

At present, the Honda OSM is a design study model, and there are no plans for it to enter production.

Source: http://world.honda.com/news/2008/4080722British-International-Motor-Show/

Technorati tags:

Honda, Japanese Cars

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. held a ceremony, July 21, 2008, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Super Cub sales which began in August 1958. The ceremony for associates was held at Honda’s Kumamoto Factory where Super Cub is produced in Japan.
“The reason we have been able to continue producing and selling Super Cub for 50 years, which is quite a long time, is because of our customers who enjoy using Super Cub every day,” said Takeo Fukui, president & CEO of Honda Motor Co, Ltd. “I would also like to thank Honda associates who have supported the history of Super Cub. Super Cub has continuously advanced to accommodate the needs and preferences of people throughout the world, and cumulative worldwide production of Cub series motorcycles reached the 60 million-unit milestone in April of this year. Moreover, in this year of the 50th anniversary of Super Cub, a new motorcycle plant has been built at this Kumamoto Factory, and the transfer of motorcycle production to the new plant will be completed within this year. I expect Kumamoto Factory to serve as the global leader of Honda’s motorcycle production operations around the world and to continue providing our customers with products that create new value.”

Since the introduction of the first Super Cub C100 model in 1958, Super Cub has been a long-selling product sold in more than 160 countries* to date, and customers around the world enjoy using Super Cub every day. Production of Super Cub in regions outside of Japan began in 1961 in Taiwan, with production based on component parts sets provided from Japan and was expanded to other countries based on Honda’s commitment to “build products close to the customer.” The Honda Cub series is currently being produced at 16 plants in 15 countries around the world.
* Honda’s internal data

Source: http://world.honda.com/news/2008/4080722British-International-Motor-Show/

Technorati tags:

Honda, Motorcycles

HIROSHIMA, Japan—Mazda Motor Corporation has announced that it will hold a summer event comprising two special exhibitions, ‘Hydrogen Rotary Engine Vehicles’ and ‘Nagare Concept Cars,’ at the Mazda Museum located within Mazda’s global headquarters facility in Hiroshima, Japan. The special exhibitions will run concurrently from July 26 to August 29, 2008.

The ‘Hydrogen Rotary Engine Vehicles’ exhibition will promote the merits of Mazda’s hydrogen rotary engine that is being developed under the company’s long-term vision for technology development, Sustainable Zoom-Zoom. The engine is powered by hydrogen, which Mazda expects will replace oil products as the dominant fuel in the future. The exhibition is intended to provide visitors with a deeper insight into Mazda’s efforts to bring the technology to market.

The exhibition will feature the Mazda RX-8 Hydrogen RE that became the world’s first commercially available hydrogen rotary vehicle in February 2006. Eight RX-8 Hydrogen RE vehicles have been delivered to date and 30 more will be supplied to Norway’s national HyNor (Hydrogen Road of Norway) project from summer 2008. Alongside it will be the Mazda Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid, which gained approval from Japan’s Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) to begin testing on public roads in June 2008, and is scheduled to start commercial leasing by March 2009. Other vehicles on display will be the Mazda HR-X, the first ever hydrogen rotary engine vehicle that debuted at the 1991 Tokyo Motor Show, and the Mazda HR-X2, which was built in 1993.

The ‘Nagare Concept Cars’ exhibition will be held concurrently in the entrance hall of the Mazda Museum. It will feature the four concept cars of the Nagare series – Nagare, Ryuga, Hakaze and Taiki – that were displayed at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show.

The Nagare (Japanese for ‘flow’) design series has resulted from Mazda’s efforts to express a clear visual brand identity and further evolve its sporty and athletic car design using nature as its inspiration. Nagare design denotes one possible direction for the next generation of Mazda design.

Mazda announced its Sustainable Zoom-Zoom plan in March 2007. It describes the technologies Mazda is developing in response to the issues facing the automotive industry and the drive for design that will captivate customers. One of the targets of the plan is to improve the average fuel economy of Mazda vehicles sold worldwide 30 percent by 2015. Through the special summer events at the Mazda Museum, the company will present its approach to car building that aims to harmonize driving pleasure with environmental and safety performance.

The Mazda Museum is the only automotive industry museum in the Chugoku and Shikoku region of Japan and welcomes an average of 70,000 visitors per year. Permanent attractions include a technical exhibition of the rotary engine, which is mass produced by no other company in the world, and many of the famous cars that have spurred Mazda’s growth. Visitors can also enjoy an up-close look at a working assembly line in an adjoining plant. As a popular destination for elementary and junior high school social studies fieldtrips, as well as the general public, the museum makes a valuable social contribution to the community.

Source: http://www.mazda.com/publicity/release/2008/200807/080722.html

Technorati tags:

Hydrogen Rotary Engine Vehicles, Japanese Automotive

Beijing Transportation Information Center (BTIC) and Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. announced today the first commercial application of the STAR WINGS project. The new Nissan Teana sedan offers a smart route-guidance navigation system as a standard feature on the 3.5L model and as an optional feature on the 2.5L model for customers in Beijing.

This navigation system enables the driver to avoid congested roads by plotting the shortest possible route to a destination based on real time probe date collected from Beijing taxis. Beijing has the world’s most comprehensive probe data system.

“Nissan and BTIC reached the first important milestone of the STAR WINGS project with the commercialization of the new navigation system, and we aim to continue a productive and ongoing relationship for further development of the project with our partners in China,” said Shunichi Toyomasu, corporate vice president of Nissan.

BTIC and Nissan plan to collaborate on the expansion of the navigation service to other cities in China and on future technology upgrades. Another collaborative effort includes research into a portable navigation device (PND) for consumers. PNDs fitted in 200 taxis will be used to monitor the usage of traffic information for a two-month period to better address customer needs. The PNDs also are scheduled to be provided to the staff vehicles of the Olympic Games.

Jointly administered by BTIC, Nissan, Beijing University of Technology and Hiroshima University, the STAR WINGS project simulated traffic flow using information on drivers’ behaviors coupled with real-time traffic information for Beijing. With a 30 percent utilization rate of the navigation system, the average commute time could potentially decrease by up to 16 percent by navigating a route less congested, according to the modeling results. Further, modeling demonstrated that a potential CO2 reduction of up to 27 percent could be achieved when 30 percent of drivers use the system.

Source: http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/NEWS/2008/_STORY/080722-01-e.html

Technorati tags:

Nissan Teana, Transportation , Japanese Vehicles

Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. announces the completion of a new cast wheel production facility in the premises of Yamaha Motor Parts Manufacturing Vietnam Co., Ltd. (YPMV) in response to the growing demand for cast motorcycle wheels in the ASEAN region. Transition to the new facility will be completed and manufacturing will begin in September 2008.

YPMV’s new specialized cast wheel production facility features three die casting machines that will operate as part of a comprehensive casting, processing and painting production process with the capacity to turn out 600,000 cast wheels annually. The investment for the construction and outfitting of the new facility and subsequent transfer of production is approximately 1.5 billion yen.

Cast wheels have become the mainstream wheels of choice for motorcycles in advanced markets due to their advantages in design freedom, processing ease and cost performance. In the ASEAN region with its growing motorcycle demand, there is also an increasing preference for cast wheels as opposed to conventional spoke wheels that have been predominant in the region. As evidence of this trend, the percentage of Yamaha motorcycles fitted with cast wheels has grown from 13% in 2004 to 44% in 2007 in the five ASEAN nations of Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Yamaha Motor has met this demand thus far with cast wheels produced at PT. Yamaha Motor Parts Manufacturing Indonesia (YPMI) and wheels from external makers. Plans call for the cast wheels produced at the new YPMV facility to be supplied to Yamaha Motor Vietnam Co., Ltd., the Yamaha Motor group manufacturing company in Vietnam, as well as to group bases in Thailand and the Philippines.

In the company’s current, three-year medium-term management plan covering the period from 2008 to 2010, the ASEAN market is designated as a growth market for which the group will be aggressively investing corporate resources to “introduce attractive new products,” implemet aggressive promotions,” “strengthen sales networks” and “expand production capacities.” The aim of these activities is to increase motorcycle unit sales to 4.3 million units annually by 2010, a 50% increase from 2007.

Source: http://www.yamaha-motor.co.jp/global/news/index.html

Technorati tags:

Yamaha, Motorcycles

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation has developed a new competition car, the Racing Lancer, whose mission will be to target victory on next year’s Dakar which breaks new ground in 2009 with a switch from Africa to South America. For Mitsubishi Motors, not only does the Dakar serve as a platform for the sales and marketing of the Pajero/Montero but it also provides a unique proving ground for powertrains and 4WD transmission systems. In light of the corporate decision to focus the firm’s cross-country rallying activities on the development of a new diesel engine, Mitsubishi Motors sees it as a natural step for the Lancer (known in Japan as Gallant Fortis), a commercially and globally important model powered by the diesel powerplant, to take over the competition baton from the Pajero/Montero and the Pajero/Montero Evolution. The technological expertise accumulated thanks to the firm’s cross-country rally program - which includes the Dakar - will be applied to its diesel engine development, including the new-generation clean diesel that will power the future production cars. Meanwhile, as was previously the case, the 4WD systems technology will also be carried over to the production versions after their configuration has been optimized as a function of their end-use.

Under its new corporate communication tagline ‘Drive@earth’, Mitsubishi Motors has a commitment to providing the joy of mobility for customers worldwide while at the same time taking a responsible stance on the environment. Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart will also play an important role as an integral part of the automobile research and development program.

The Racing Lancer is a Super Production Cross-Country Rally car, which has been developed in compliance with the FIA’s Group T1 regulations (modified cross-country rally cars). It also complies with the new rules due to come into force in 2010. Needless to say, the new rally car has profited from the technical expertise and experience gained with the Pajero/Montero and the Pajero/Montero Evolution which secured 12 outright Dakar wins during its uninterrupted 25-year participation on the celebrated African event, a sequence which began with the fifth edition of the rally in 1983. The MRX09 features a new, multi-tubular steel frame which has benefited from advanced CAE analysis with a view to optimizing the layout and dimensioning of the tubing. The car will be powered by the 3.0-liter V6 turbocharged diesel engine which the company is currently developing on qualifying rounds of the 2008 Dakar Series and the 2008 FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup. The carbon-fibre bodywork of the MRX09 is redolent of the Lancer Sportback, a new sporty hatchback due to be released on the European market this summer. The new car will be equipped with the same 4WD system, drive train, suspension and brakes following their modification in accordance with the new technical regulations and as a function of the characteristics of the diesel turbo powerplant.

Source:http://media.mitsubishi-motors.com/pressrelease/e/motorsports/detail1805.html

Technorati tags:

Mitsubishi Motors, Japanese Cars

HIROSHIMA, Japan—Mazda will unveil a sporty, compact crossover concept vehicle, Mazda Kazamai, at the Moscow International Automobile Salon (MIAS) on August 26. Kazamai, which means “swirling crosswinds” in Japanese, expresses the powerful yet nimble image of a stylish and compact crossover. The concept is based on Mazda’s long-term vision for technology development, Sustainable Zoom-Zoom, which aims to provide a unique balance between sporty driving fun and superior environmental and safety performance. Kazamai will be joined at MIAS by the Russian debut of Mazda’s CX-9 SUV, which was crowned 2008 North American Truck of the Year in February.

Mazda Kazamai

The Kazamai concept further evolves Mazda’s ‘Nagare’ design language by fusing Nagare’s ‘flow’ design cues with aerodynamic proportions. The design features panel lines inspired by crosswinds in nature which evoke visual lightness. Its bold five-point grille, accentuated front wheel arches and sleek roof line, combined with large 22-inch wheels, lend it high emotional appeal.

Sporty to look at, Kazamai is meant to be spirited and fun to drive, with compact dimensions. Kazamai’s four-wheel drive powertrain will consist of a next-generation direct injection engine and a newly developed transmission. It is also aerodynamic, with an evolved lightweight body structure and enhanced the vehicle safety attributes. Were it to be built, Mazda’s latest show car would deliver exciting driving dynamics, frugal fuel consumption and greatly reduced CO2 emissions.

The Mazda Kazamai promises to be another ground-breaking show car from Mazda Design, winner of this year’s Grand Prix du Design in Paris. Created especially for the Moscow International Automobile Salon, it gives a good indication of where Mazda is going with a possible future compact crossover. And in Russia’s growing automotive market, compact SUVs are the second-largest segment, representing about 13 percent of all new car sales.

Source: http://www.mazda.com/publicity/release/2008/200807/080715.html

Technorati tags:

Mazda, Automobiles

HIROSHIMA, Japan—Mazda Motor Corporation has freshened its globally popular Demio compact car for the Japanese market. It goes on sale today at all Mazda, Mazda Anfini and Mazda Autozam dealerships nationwide. Manufacturer’s suggested retail prices (including consumption tax) range from 1,190,000 to 1,580,000 yen.

Mazda Demio 13C-V
(Front wheel drive with MZR 1.3-liter Miller-cycle engine with continuously variable transmission.)

The updated Demio comes with refined interior and exterior styling. Two vivid exterior body colors — Passion Orange Mica and Golden Red Mica — have been newly added to the range. Inside, the standard black seats have been enlivened with a multistripe pattern, and the steering wheel features bright silver spokes.

Mazda’s ‘Audio-less’ specification is now standard across the entire model range, providing customers with the freedom to choose their desired audio system. This revision makes the base price for some of the available models even more affordable.

Source: http://www.mazda.com/publicity/release/2008/200807/080714a.html

Technorati tags:
Mazda, Compact Cars