Japanese Car Design Corner / 日本自動車設計角: Proper mobile version of "Japanese Car Design Corn...

Japanese Car Design Corner / 日本自動車設計角: Proper mobile version of "Japanese Car Design Corn...: "Blogger has finally released the highly anticipated mobile version today and although it's still beta, you can now visit the mobile version ..."

New blog about Japanese cars!

Although the "Automotive Design Corner" blog started initially with the aim to include news and info about British cars, during the last few months, news regarding Japanese cars have also been posted.

I have now decided to create a new blog dedicated to Japanese cars and you can visit the new blog by clicking here.

Toyota announces recall of 3rd-gen Prius

Toyota today announced a global recall (earlier post) on the latest, third-generation Prius built before 27 January 2010. To date, there have been no accidents linked to this issue reported in Europe, and in UK alone, the recall involves 8,500 cars.

Although no other Toyota or Lexus models are affected by this latest recall action in Europe, Toyota Sai (JDM) and Lexus HS250h (USDM) are also affected.

Click the link to read the complete story

Japan orders Toyota to investigate complaints about Prius' braking performance

It seems that another headache (earlier post) has just popped up for Toyota. Japan's Ministry of Transportation ordered Toyota to investigate a number of consumer complaints involving the brakes of the new Prius (トヨタプリウス). This is after the Ministry received 14 complaints since last July (in one of the 14 complaints, a Prius crashed head on into another car at an intersection).

Click the link to read the complete story.

In the race to bring Leaf to the market, Nissan engineers cut corners?!

Nissan's CEO, Carlos Ghosen, is very eager to win the EV race by bringing first to the market the first mass-produced EV. But, the are sacrifices to be made in order to achieve this, as the article explains.

Let's face it, the biggest competitor is GM's Volt, which will be launched about the same time. Carlos Ghosen recently told Bloomberg, “The engineers will always tell you, ‘Wait a little more,’ and if you keep playing this game, you never launch any product.”

Since cars are complicated pieces of engineering, it's easy to understand that EVs present numerous fresh challenges  to the engineers. So, what are the shortcuts? I have summarized them below in order to be easier to identify.

Click the link to read the complete story.

Honda CEO challenges R&D team to build a better hybrid than Prius

Honda Motor Co’s CEO Takanobu Ito has challenged his R&D team to produce a hybrid that exceeds the fuel-economy of the Toyota Prius. Ito said that the new hybrid won’t necessarily be a next-generation version of the Honda Insight, but may be another vehicle that will join the company’s hybrid lineup.

“We want to develop and expand our hybrids,” Ito told Automotive News during an interview at the Detroit auto show. “We made some major sacrifices to shift people and resources to do that.”

He said that Honda is currently concentrating on expanding its small-vehicle hybrid platform and said that the Japanese automaker’s large-vehicle hybrid platform is not ready.

Honda’s top management has been disappointed by the sales of the Insight since its U.S. launch last March. Even though the Insight undercuts the Toyota Prius by $2,500, it’s fuel-economy rating of 40/43 mpg (city/highway) falls short of the Prius’ 51/48 rating.

Source: egmCarTech

Toyota Prius G Sports concept revealed in Tokyo

Being one of the favorites at this year's Tokyo Auto Salon that opened Friday in Japan, Toyota couldn't but present a concept model of its latest generation Prius hybrid. Like the FT-86 G Sports Concept that also made its world premiere today at Japan's largest tuning show, the Prius G Sports Concept previews a new series of performance models based on series production cars called "G Sports" that will be sold through Toyota's dealers in Japan.

The G Sports package includes all kinds of cosmetic and performance goodies, but curiously enough, none that concern the gasoline-electric hybrid powertrain...

What it does get is a full body aero kit that adds a completely new nose, a different rear bumper that houses the twin tail pipes of the sport exhaust system, rear wheel covers, side skirts, carbon fiber mirrors and a rear wing.

The LED daytime running lights and the larger alloys shod in beefier wheels complete the exterior mods.

Inside, the Prius G Sports Concept gets a pair of body-hugging Recaro seats, a leather steering wheel accented by red stitching, aluminum pedals, new dashboard trim as well as 'G-Sports' branded gear lever and start button.

The performance upgrades include a new sport suspension that lowers the hybrid car's ride height by 30mm, underbody aero parts, a sport braking system and what Google translates as "reinforced body".

Source: Carscoop