There’s been quite a lot of talk over the last few years concerning the replacement for Nissan‘s venerable Titan full-size pickup.

After the plan to offer a Ram based vehicle went away, following Chrysler’s bankruptcy and subsequent restructuring, Nissan chose to go it alone when it came to a next generation big pickup, bringing the entire development and engineering process in-house.

However, those plans, which reportedly would have seen a revamped Titan rolled out in 2013, have now been pushed back at least a year, largely as a result of supplier fallout from Japan’s natural disaster back in March. This has left the automaker scrambling to get production back on track as a top priority, diverting resources away from some upcoming vehicle programs.

As a result, during a Q&A session with Automotive News at the LA Auto Show last month, Andy Palmer, Nissan’s vice president for vehicle planning and program management, stated that, regarding a new Titan, “we will come out a little later now. I have made the decision.”

As to what form the new Titan will take, or which powertrains it will offer, little is known at this time, though expect V6 and possibly V8 engines as well as extended and crew cab models. It’ll be also interesting to see if Nissan will attempt to target heavier-duty customers with this one (it’s Titan based NV van currently comes in 1/2 ton, 3/4 ton and 1-ton configurations).

Perhaps the most exciting addition to the new Titan, however, will be the addition of a Cummin’s sourced diesel engine.

[Source: Autoweek]

This year has been a  tough one for Toyota thanks to Mother Nature and her natural disasters. As if the tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan wasn’t bad enough, Thailand experienced its worst floods in almost 70 years, disrupting Toyota’s production of their popular Camry and Prius models.

As a result, Toyota has had to cut its full-year profit forecast by 54-percent, dropping their net income 56-percent to $2.3 billion in the 12 months ending on March 31st, 2012. That’s less than half the profit that was originally projected by analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Combine the disasters with the yen’s surge and it’s no surprise that Toyota’s recovery is going to be tough and may take longer than one would expect for the popular Japanese auto manufacturer. It is likely that Toyota will be giving up its three-year crown of world’s largest carmaker to GM for 2011.

Due to the flood, Toyota and Honda both delayed their new projections, while Nissan on the other hand raised its profit forecast thanks to a rise in vehicle sales in China. It’s widely believed that Toyota lost more output than any other automotive manufacturer from Thailand’s record floods, possibly causing 260,000 vehicles to have been lost in production.

Toyota is also in a balancing act with the pricing on their vehicles due to the rising yen. They have even admitted that they have had to raise the prices on some of their vehicles and anticipate a drop in sales as a result.

[Source: Automotive News]

As Typhoon Roke made landfall on the Pacific Coast of Honshu, Japan’s largest island on September 22, automakers in the country, including Toyota, Honda and Nissan had shuttered plants and other facilities in anticipation of potential damage.

According to Environmental News Service, the Typhoon brought with it heavy rain and driving winds as it headed Northwest across Hammatsu City in Shizuoka Prefecture. At the time of posting this blog, there had been reports of some 1,000 homes in 30 different Prefectures flooded by rain, while some 90,000 dwellings had lost power. In addition some 367 people had reportedly been injured as a result of the Typhoon, while four were declared missing.

As Japan is now in the midst of Typhoon season, there will likely be others making landfall shortly, with the potential to wreak further havoc on the country’s citizens and infrastructure, making local automakers nervous. Given the fallout from March’s earthquake and Tsunami, Japanese manufacturers will likely be glad to see the back of 2011, though contingency plans put in place should ensure that production and supply chains won’t be disrupted in the same fashion as they were earlier this year.

[Source: Environmental News Service]

It’s only been a mere six months since Japan was devastated by earthquake and tsunami, but on September 13, 2011, Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing Executive Vice President Steve St. Angelo proudly announced that all Toyota models in the North American line-up have finally returned to 100 percent production.

Just weeks after the quake hit on March 11, Toyota tentatively forecasted the recovery to take as long as November to complete. St. Angelo remarked, “The recovery is a testament to the dedication and commitment of our North American team members, suppliers and business partners… I have no doubt that our team continues to be focused on building high quality vehicles for our customers.”

Thanks to the quicker than expected recovery, Toyota’s main priority now is to start replenishing dealer inventories by running overtime and weekend shifts for particular plants. Production for the fourth quarter is now estimated at 15% higher than the initial forecast.

It sounds like the plot to a bad science fiction movie. ASIMO, Honda‘s humanoid robot, is sent into the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plan in Japan to help out where human’s can’t, only to be transformed by Plutonium into a killing machine.

But don’t worry says Honda, it’s not going to happen. Despite a story by Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun indicating as much (minus our editorialized outcome), Honda has officially commented that any such plans are merely, “speculation.”

The piece in the Asahi paper went into detail, indicating that the 4-foot, 3-inch robot’s upper body would be upgraded to handle the task, while it’s feet could be replaced with wheels or caterpillar tracks, to better move about in the debris strewn

nuclear plant, which continues to leak radiation.

“Although Honda hopes that ASIMO will someday be a helper to people, at this point the robot is solely a research and design project,” said US Honda spokeswoman Lauren Ebner.

[Source: AFP]

This year hasn’t been the kindest to Japanese automakers Honda and Toyota. The devastation wrought by March’s earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, resulted in severe disruptions to their supply chains, causing dealer inventories to run low and other automakers to gain ground in sales.

However, after a dismal July, there are signs that both Honda and Toyota are gaining momentum; supply from Japan has improved, while factories in North America are running in overdrive in an effort to boost vehicle inventory to more ‘normal’ levels.

Even though rivals, including Detroit’s big three, have gained ground this year as a result of problems facing the Japanese duo, most seem to view  Honda and Toyota’s improving fortunes quite favorably.

Don Johnson, General Motors’ US sales head, believes that more Hondas and Toyotas on dealer lots will help stimulate overall growth in new car sales, bringing back buyers who’ve been sitting on the fence. ”A lot of brand-loyal customers have chosen to sit on the sidelines until selection and price improve,” he says. “They will be coming back into the market.”

That said, it is likely to be some time before inventory levels reach pre-March totals. Randy Pflughaupt, group vice president of sales administration for Toyota, believes it will be 2012 before the automaker achieves year-over-year sales increases; Honda meanwhile, is currently running at around 95 percent of normal production in Japan, with full inventory achieved on all US product lines bar the Civic which traditionally is one of it’s most popular models.

According to a number industry analysts, it’s inventory that defines the ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ in the marketplace and right now, as it stands, Domestic brands are leading the way, Chrysler boasting a 72 day supply on its vehicles, allowing it to post a 20 percent gain in sales during July, as Honda and Toyota combined, slipped 6.9 percent. Ford, with a 54 day supply has seen sales jump by 13 percent for the bread and butter brand and 40 percent for Lincoln in the same period. GM, with a 73 day supply has reported gains of some 8 percent.

“Whoever has the cars, outsells everybody,” declared Ralph Martinez, a Chrysler dealer principal from Wilsonville, Oregon. “People are out there buying,” he said, but “they’re going to places that have a good selection.”

[Source: Automotive News]

Still plagued by the effects of the March 11th earthquake, Toyota won’t be able to turn a profit Stateside until September.

Sales of Toyotas have been plummeting since May: 33% then and 21% in June, and a projected 21-33% for the month of July. This comes on a total 4% slide from the first quarter, even though the rest of the industry saw an increase of 13%. Not good. And to make Toyota’s matters even worse, there’s still a shortage of cars and light trucks for dealer lots—one that won’t be fulfilled for weeks.

“Our market share will begin recovering this month, but it will be September or maybe October before we’re really growing again,” said Bob Carter, Toyota’s vice president for US sales. “We were in too deep a hole, and we’re still digging out.”

Weak consumer confidence is also not helping matters, even though Toyota is launching a boost in incentives to attract consumers. By September, however, Toyota should be back to regular production in both Japan and North America, especially with the new, perennially-popular Camry dropping this fall.

[Source: Bloomberg]

If you live in America, it’s hard to imagine what it’s like to still favor Yahoo over Google. Over the recent years, Google has evolved from a search engine service to providing free email, navigation, maps, operating systems, image hosting, social networks…you get the picture. The technology that Google has created is, for the most part, beneficial to human kind, though some question the comapny’s practices of privacy and security.

Case in point, the residents of Japan weren’t very fond of Google’s Street View vehicles prowling their streets, snapping up photos and peeking into their homes. But now Google has found a more beneficial way of utilizing their Street View vehicles, aiding in Japan’s recovery efforts after their disastrous earthquake and tsunami.

Google has repurposed its Street View vehicles in Japan to help document the damage done and the reconstruction efforts that are being made to rebuild the devastated areas. And even though there are still plenty of skeptics on why Google is doing what they’re doing in Japan, there’s no denying that they’ve used the technologies they’ve developed to lend a huge hand in Japan’s recovery efforts.

[Source: PC World]

Sales of the Prius in 2011 are expected to surpass even the number sold in 2010 says Toyota, despite the disastrous earthquake in Japan that limited production of the popular hybrid.

Toyota has been shifting all its resources to ensure production of its hybrid model is top priority after hitting a 61-percent drop in June of Prius deliveries – the lowest since September 2004. Prior to the earthquake, Toyota anticipated sales of the Prius to leap their record 2007 year of 181,221; though that may be out of reach now, Toyota is confident they’ll surpass the 2010 sales figure of 140,928.

Currently, demand is greater than supply of the Prius, with many dealerships in America having a waiting list of customers. With the average fuel cost going up, demand for hybrid models has also been going up.

More importantly for 2012 and beyond, Toyota will be expanding the Prius line with the addition of the Prius v wagon, subcompact Prius c and the electric plug-in Prius, potentially making it their number-one selling model line within the next decade.

[Source: Automotive News]

Yu Muroga was driving along peacefully in Japan when the earthquake and tsunami hit. We’re not quite sure why he had a HD camera running on the dashboard, but we’re certainly amazed by the footage it captured.

Even though the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan needs no real introduction, very few videos have surfaced that showed the incident from this point-of-view. In fact, watching the video is a pretty surreal experience, something you’d expect out of a Hollywood blockbuster.

It starts off with an unsuspecting in-car point-of-view as the earthquake rocks the earth. It’s worth mentioning that the footage probably didn’t capture the huge one, but rather one of the aftershocks before the actual tsunami came. As the car pushed on to wherever it was trying to head to, the tsunami hits and flooding occurs. From there it’s heartbreaking to see people getting stuck in their cars or climbing to the roofs of their cars seeking refuge from the oncoming flood. It’s really something else to see cars floating around in a sea of water helplessly and how devastating the events were in Japan over three months ago.

Check out the video after the break. Continue Reading…