TOKYO (AP) — Toyota is working with Japan's space agency on a vehicle to explore the lunar surface, with ambitions to help people live on the moon by 2040 and then go live on Mars, company officials said Friday.

The vehicle being developed with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is called Lunar Cruiser, whose name pays homage to the Toyota Land Cruiser. Its launch is set for the late 2020's.

There is a lot of hype surrounding the 2022 Hyundai Elantra N and for good reason. In fact, it appears to be one of the best performance cars on sale at its price point and Doug DeMuro recently put it through its paces.

You may have never heard of the Subaru 360 before but it is quite possibly the most adorable car produced by the automaker and now is your chance to own one.

TOKYO - Toyota said on Friday its vehicle sales rose by 10.1% last year, making it the world's biggest carmaker for a second straight year and putting it further ahead of its nearest rival, Volkswagen Group.

The carmaker said sales were 10.5 million vehicles in 2021, including those by affiliates Daihatsu Motors and Hino Motors.

In the 2030 roadmap presentation of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, we heard a lot of exciting news. One of the bigger news for Mitsubishi was the all-new ASX coming in 2023, accompanied by a teaser sketch.

A dealership order guide for the 2023 Nissan Z has leaked. Though it's for the Canadian market, we can expect that the features and grades will closely match those of the U.S. when the highly anticipated sports car comes to market. 

Posted by a user at the forum NewNissanZ.com, the order guide offers a detailed look at all the car's features. A grade walk shows that Nissan intends the base model to be the Sport trim with manual transmission. Though pricing has not been revealed, it indicates that Nissan won't be forcing manual buyers into a more expensive trim, like on the Honda Civic Si or Mazda 3, just for the privilege of rowing your own.

Back in June and July of 2021, Cox Automotive polled nearly 5,000 consumers between the ages of 18 and 72 who either owned, considered buying or rejected buying an electric vehicle. Within that data, it showed that Tesla quite clearly has the most brand recognition for its EVs, while other brands have a whole lot of work to do on the marketing front. Specifically, a whopping 69% of those EV buyers (or rejecters) didn't even know the Chevrolet Bolt existed despite being on sale since 2016.

Then we noticed something really surprising. A stunning 40% of those 5,000 consumers — about 2,000 people — said they were aware of Toyota's electric vehicle. Some said they were considering it, some said they were not. Either way, there's a pretty big problem with that: Toyota did not sell an electric vehicle in June and July of 2021. Nor did it sell one at any time after the 2014 RAV4 EV. And just in case you're wondering, the Toyota bZ4X EV wouldn't be revealed for another four months. 

Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi are going all-in on EVs. The trio announced plans to release 35 new electric models globally by 2030, ranging from Japan-only kei cars to commercial vehicles, and they sketched out plans to develop next-generation solid-state batteries.

The three carmakers will leverage the benefits of economies of scale to keep development and production costs in check. Many of the Alliance's models already ride on a common platform; the Nissan Sentra shares its bones with the third-generation Renault Scénic. Looking ahead, the plan is to build 80% of the cars in the group's global portfolio on common architectures. Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi are massive companies with a wide lineup of models, so there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, the strategy focuses on five basic modular platforms.

Nissan is recalling more than 793,000 Rogues sold in model years 2014-2016 to address a wiring harness that can become corroded by exposure to moisture in the driver's side foot well. The issue is exacerbated by salty environments and can lead to electrical malfunctions and even fires if left unaddressed. 

"In affected vehicles, if water and salt collect in the driver's side foot well, it may wick up the dash side harness tape and enter the connector," Nissan said in its defect report submitted to NHTSA. "If this occurs, the dash side harness connector may corrode and possibly cause issues such as driver's power window or power seat inoperative, AWD warning light ON, battery discharge, and/or thermal damage to the connector. In rare cases, a fire could potentially occur, increasing the risk of injury."

This story contains independently made renders for a tuned 2022 Toyota GR 86 by Jon Sibal who is neither related to nor endorse by Toyota. 

Today is a big day for Mazda as the 2023 CX-50 has gone into production at the new Mazda Toyota Manufacturing facility in Huntsville, Alabama.

The 2023 Toyota Sequoia is not a Land Cruiser. Even in TRD Pro trim, it lacks headline-grabbing and desirable off-road tech like electronic swaybar disconnects and a locking center differential. But that doesn't mean it will be a poor performer when the going gets tough and dirty. In fact, the Sequoia TRD Pro might help blunt the loss of the Land Cruiser in America for some potential buyers.

In addition to sharing its TNGA-F platform with the global Land Cruiser and its luxury-minded twin, the Lexus LX 600 that unlike the LC is being sold in America, the Sequoia TRD Pro gets Fox internal bypass shocks, a ¼-inch aluminum TRD front skid plate, a locking rear diff, Multi-Terrain Select, Downhill Assist Control, Crawl Control, a Multi-Terrain Monitor. We're not sure what its numbers will look like as far as approach, departure and breakover angles, but it ought to be a fairly formidable package overall.

The all-new 2023 Toyota Sequoia has a lot of work to do if it has any chance of catching up with the sales leaders in the full-size SUV segment. As is the case with the 2022 Toyota Tundra upon which it's based, the Japanese automaker's biggest vehicles just don't come close to the sales figures of their American competitors. 

With 8,070 units sold, the Sequoia sat beneath the Nissan Armada at the very bottom of the sales chart in 2021. To put things into perspective, last year Chevy sold over 106,000 Tahoe SUVs, plus another 48,000 Suburbans. The GMC Yukon is nearly the same thing, and that adds another 82,000 units to the tally. The Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator handily outsell the Sequioa. And the Jeep Wagoneer, which just went on sale at the tail end of 2021, more than doubled Sequoia sales in the month of December. 

Good morning and welcome to our daily digest of automotive news from around the globe, starting with…