Displaying Items By Tag: Kawasaki

TOM'S began as a factory-authorized tuning shop in Japan in the 1970s, and didn't take long to start modifying and racing Toyota Supras. So it's no surprise that the company got its hands on the new A90 Supra, its BMW running gear being no barrier to the company's work. The real surprise is the other vehicle on TOM'S menu: the Toyota Century, the company's luxurious and exclusive VIP transport. Both debuted at the Tokyo Auto Salon recently. At least there's precedent for "tuned" Centuries, even if it's a strange one: Akio Toyoda, the company's CEO, built a "Gazoo Racing Masters of Nurburgring" variant of the luxury sedan. It seems more like a one-off special for the CEO than a production model, but there you go. The TOM'S Century doesn't alter the V8 hybrid powertrain, but does add a bodykit and custom interior (that sadly we don't have any photos of yet). A custom exhaust rounds out the changes. The TOM'S Supra is more involved. The exterior gets a lot of carbon fiber parts — front, side, and rear diffusers, a large rear wing and curvaceous overfenders. TOM'S Advox coilovers and six-pot Brembos help with cornering and stopping duties. The engine gets a tune, larger intercooler, and a better-flowing turbo that breathes through a TOM'S exhaust system. The inside (again, not pictured) gets seats and an aluminum wheel. The mods are good for 120 horsepower over the stock Supra, and it's 3.3 inches wider overall. TOM'S claims increased downforce, too. The TOM'S Supra (roughly $129,180) will be limited to 99 units, and the Century ($255,600) to 36 units. They will not make it to the U.S., although we're sure that if you waved enough money at TOM'S they would send the parts over to do much of the conversion to the Supra yourself. If you're in Japan or have enough cash that where you're located doesn't matter, you can read more about both models at the TOM'S site.

Honda has announced pricing details of the 2020 Clarity Plug-In Hybrid model, which will begin arriving at dealerships across the United States on January 17.

The Infiniti QX55 is well on its way to joining the crossover coupe ranks in 2020, and here's our first view of the car out testing. Infiniti is expected to debut the ‘ute in the first half of 2020, so it won't be long till we see it without the swirls and body cladding on it, too. As the name suggests, the QX55 is a derivative of the QX50 crossover, which was just completely redesigned for the 2019 model year. Infiniti debuted its new VC-Turbo (variable compression) engine technology in that crossover, and it'll certainly be along for the ride in the QX55 as well. The latest teaser suggested that Infiniti would be greatly differentiating this crossover coupe to the rest of the field by giving it a uniquely long tail for more cargo space. That tail still exists on the vehicle caught out testing, but it doesn't look drastically different than other vehicles of its ilk. To that end, rear cargo space is likely to be slightly down from the more traditionally shaped QX50, even if it's slightly better than competitors. However, rear seat space appears to be better than expected. The roof itself doesn't taper at a horribly steep angle into the rear passenger's heads, and the rear windows are large enough that they may only cause minor claustrophobia. Most of everything except for the rear end will likely resemble the QX50 verbatim, so it's just the back half that we're waiting for in the reveal. The grille itself has the same waveform shape as the normal QX50, and the body creases in the hood and doors protruding through the skin-tight camo resemble it as well. Even the wheels on this tester are exactly the same design as the rollers used on the production QX50. When it does come out, the QX55 will join its German competition in this stylish but utility-hampered segment. The BMW X4 and Mercedes-Benz GLC Coupe will be the main targets when we expect this car to hit dealer lots later this year.

Toyota is making its first big bet on the airborne urban mobility market of the future by investing $394 million in Joby Aviation, a California-based company that has developed a four-passenger, battery-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.

Toyota served as the lead investor in Joby's $590 million Series C financing round and says it will share its vaunted expertise in manufacturing, quality and cost controls to help Joby develop, produce and commercialize its eVTOL aircraft. Toyota will also appoint Executive Vice President Shigeki Tomoyama to the Joby board of directors.

The move gives the automaker a presence in the increasingly popular "flying car" segment that has seen the likes of Hyundai, Porsche, Audi and Uber start to develop airborne taxi concepts as one solution to rising urban traffic congestion.

Toyota filed for patent protection back in 2018 for a car capable of driving on terra firma and flying, courtesy of the ability to transform itself via a pair of struts that tilt upward and sprout spring-loaded rotor blades from the wheels, enabling it to fly. But the company hasn't showed off an actual prototype.

"Air transportation has been a long-term goal for Toyota, and while we continue our work in the automobile business, this agreement sets our sights to the sky," Toyota President and CEO Akio Toyoda said in a statement.

As for the aircraft itself, it looks like a combination of a helicopter, small fixed-wing airplane and drone. Joby claims it can travel at 200 mph and go more than 150 miles on a single charge, with multiple redundancies baked in to avoid single points of failure. No details are offered about its battery pack or powertrain.

Joby is in major growth mode, as evidenced by the many job openings listed on its website, and it says it is building manufacturing and testing facilities in Marina, California, not far from its headquarters in coastal Santa Cruz. The company was founded in 2009 and says it has opened its formal certification program with the Federal Aviation Administration.

TOKYO — Japanese attorneys representing Carlos Ghosn, including lead lawyer Junichiro Hironaka, quit on Thursday following the former Nissan chief's flight to Lebanon from Japan, where he had been fighting financial misconduct charges. Hironaka had been representing Ghosn in his defense against financial misconduct charges. His move, announced Thursday, was widely expected after Ghosn escaped to Lebanon late last month. A second lawyer in Ghosn's three-person legal team, Takashi Takano, also quit on Thursday, according to an official at his office. A person who answered the telephone at the office of the third lawyer, Hiroshi Kawatsu, said she did not know if he still represented the former automotive executive. Hironaka said in a statement that the entire team working on the case at his office will quit but did not outline reasons. He has said before he felt some empathy for Ghosn's reasons for escape, while stressing he had hoped to win vindication in court. Hironaka is respected for winning high-profile cases in this nation where the conviction rate is higher than 99%. Among the cases he has handled is that of Atsuko Muraki, a Welfare Ministry official accused of falsely approving a group to qualify for mail discounts. She was acquitted in 2010. Also Thursday, Nissan released steps it was taking to prevent a recurrence of Ghosn's scandal, and reiterated its denouncement of Ghosn. The automaker said in a report submitted to the Tokyo Stock Exchange that Ghosn had the authority to "single-handedly" determine directors' compensation and such information was not shared with other departments at the company. The underreporting of his future compensation is among the allegations Ghosn faced in Tokyo. In a news conference last week in Beirut, Ghosn insisted again that he was innocent of the charges, which also included breach of trust in diverting Nissan money for his personal gain. He said he fled because he felt he could not expect a fair trial in Japan. Ghosn's flight while he was out on bail awaiting trial means his case will not go on in Japan. Interpol has issued a wanted notice but his extradition from Lebanon is unlikely. Ghosn has accused Nissan and Japanese officials of conspiring to bring him down to block a fuller integration of Nissan with its French alliance partner Renault SA of France. Ghosn, who has signed on an international team of lawyers, has expressed willingness to stand trial in Lebanon. Nissan also said that Ghosn obtained compensation from a venture company in the Netherlands set up Mitsubishi, a smaller Japanese automaker with which Nissan set up an alliance under Ghosn. Ghosn has denied wrongdoing about the spending at the venture. Nissan said independent outside directors had been added to its board. It denied recent reports about troubles in the Renault alliance, and has stressed the alliance remains strong. Japanese prosecutors have said repeatedly they are confident they have a case, and Ghosn's flight underlines how he sought to skirt the law. Ghosn led Nissan, based in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, for two decades, rescuing it from near-bankruptcy. Reuters contributed to this report.

PARIS — Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard said on Thursday there was a "real desire" within the top ranks of both companies for its alliance with Nissan to succeed, dismissing suggestions the partnership was on the rocks. Turmoil within the Franco-Japanese alliance, long dogged by internal rivalries, deepened following the November 2018 arrest in Tokyo of its architect and long-time boss Carlos Ghosn on charges of financial crimes, which he denies. Attempts to restore calm were dealt a fresh blow by Ghosn's dramatic flight from Japanese justice and a series of no-holds-barred allegations he has made from his refuge in Lebanon, including that he was the victim of a plot to oust him and that the alliance is now a "masquerade". Nissan has vigorously rejected Ghosn's stance, while both the Japanese firm and Renault have tried to rubbish suggestions their two decades old partnership is falling apart. "We have a board overseeing the alliance which is made up of people who are all extremely in favor of the alliance," Renault Chairman Senard told a briefing with reporters. "There is a common desire to associate our strategic plans and a real desire to make this alliance a success," he added, dismissing a report that Nissan was examining scenarios for a possible future outside of the alliance as "fake news." The 66-year-old declined to comment on anything related to Ghosn, adding: "I only think about the future." Renault shares were down 2% by 1123 GMT, underperfoming the broader auto sector which was down on news that Washington has threatened to impose tariffs on European car imports due to Europe's stance on Iran. Renault's French rival and Peugeot maker PSA Group also gave a flavor of some industry headwinds, reporting a 10% fall in its global sales last year as Chinese demand tanked. Renault is due to publish its 2019 global sales on Friday.

JOINT PROJECTS

Analysts see Renault-Nissan's cost-saving alliance as vital to both companies as the car industry battles a slowdown and huge investments in cleaner vehicles and automated driving, particularly as rivals PSA and Fiat Chrysler are merging to help meet these challenges. Renault held ultimately unsuccessful talks to combine with Fiat Chrysler last year, which Ghosn described at a Beirut news conference as a huge missed opportunity. Senard, who chairs the alliance's operating board, said on Thursday that once the partnership has been rebooted, other firms might potentially want to join. The executive, who used to run tyre maker Michelin, has become the de facto senior figure in Renault and Nissan's alliance, though without Ghosn's commander-in-chief aura, which had helped hold it together. While that is partly deliberate — both parties are keen to avoid another strongman situation and created a four-member operating board to oversee the alliance — Senard will now have to show he can push through new joint projects. He declined to give details of these beyond saying potential cost savings could be substantial, and that the alliance's board would meet soon to decide on its industrial plan. The meeting is scheduled for Jan. 30, a source close to Renault said. The firms are meanwhile finalizing a management revamp, with Renault close to appointing a new CEO after ousting Ghosn-ally Thierry Bollore in October. A new CEO started at Nissan in December. Luca de Meo, who recently stepped down as the head of Volkswagen's Seat brand, is seen as the frontrunner for the Renault job, although a non-compete clause in his contract is proving a problem, sources have said. Interim CEO Clotilde Delbos is also in the frame. Senard said shaking up the shareholder structure in the alliance was not a priority for either side. Renault, which is part-owned by the French state, has 43% of Nissan, while the Japanese firm has 15% of the French carmaker, with no voting rights attached — a structure that has caused friction.

Toyota isn't a stranger to flying cars as the company gave $386,792 (£296,295 / €346,790) to Cartivator back in 2017.

The 2020 Toyota GR Supra and Ford Mustang Bullitt are two of the most exciting sports cars launched in recent years and Car Magazine in South Africa recently lined up the duo for a head-to-head drag race to see which is the quickest.

Nissan is busily transforming the electric Ariya concept unveiled at the 2019 Tokyo Auto Show into a production model tentatively due out in 2021. It will be positioned as a bigger, more spacious alternative to the Leaf, and it will receive a dose of performance the cheerful hatchback has never benefited from. The Ariya is an evolution of the 2017 IMX concept, and it's closer to production than it might seem. The sheetmetal hides the e-4ORCE twin-motor powertrain we recently drove, which promises to deliver acceleration and grip in spades. The Japanese firm hasn't released final horsepower and torque figures, but it hinted the Ariya will be quick. "Electric motors have changed the world, because this idea of a pure 0-60 is less a differentiator. How you use it, how you deliver it, what it means, and, for the supercars, how many laps you can do, that matters. Naturally, it's exciting. Even the real version of the Ariya is fast — faster or as fast as a Z car," revealed Alfonso Albaisa, Nissan's senior vice president of global design, in an interview with Green Car Reports. The 370Z takes 5.1 seconds to reach 60 mph from a stop, so Albaisa's comments suggest the Ariya could slip under the five-second mark. He qualified the crossover's handling as "extremely good" thanks in part to the battery pack mounted under the passenger compartment, a configuration which lowers the center of gravity. Hitting freeway speeds in under five seconds is less important than driving range, but the Ariya should deliver in that department, too. Nissan previously floated a 300-mile range, and Albaisa affirmed that's still the development team's goal. Whether it will achieve that number on the WLTP testing cycle or the EPA's isn't known. We expect the production version of the Nissan Ariya — a name that might not end up on the tailgate — will reach showrooms in 2021. The company's American dealers got a preview of it in late 2019, so the project has reached an advanced stage. When it lands, it will compete in the same burgeoning segment as the Tesla Model Y, the Ford Mustang Mach-E, the Fisker Ocean, and the Audi Q4 E-Tron. Pricing will start in the vicinity of $40,000.

TOKYO — Japan's Honda and Isuzu on Wednesday said they would jointly research the use of hydrogen fuel cells to power heavy-duty trucks, looking to expand fuel cell use by applying the zero-emission technology to larger vehicles. As part of a two-year deal, Isuzu will test Honda's fuel cell powertrain, which was designed for passenger cars, in Isuzu's commercial trucks, the companies said, which could pave the way for using the technology in a wider range of vehicles. Automakers are looking to develop more electric vehicles (EVs) to comply with tightening global emissions regulations. Many see battery-powered EVs as a solution for passenger cars in urban settings, but a growing number see hydrogen fuel cells as an effective way to power trucks, buses and other big vehicles. "Although we have done extensive R&D into passenger FCVs (fuel cell vehicles), we have not been able to study how best to apply the technology to commercial vehicles," a Honda spokesman told reporters at a briefing. "This partnership will allow us to do that." Fuel cell vehicles generate their own electricity using hydrogen stored in onboard tanks. This enables them to travel longer distances and refuel more quickly than battery EVs, while using less costly energy storage systems. "We think that FCV technology is well suited for heavier trucks which travel longer distances, and this partnership will enable us to examine this further," an Isuzu spokeswoman said, adding that the truck maker was also developing various lower-carbon powertrains including battery-electric technology for shorter-distance vehicles. With its Clarity Fuel Cell sedan, Honda is one of a handful of automakers which have developed and marketed fuel cell-powered passenger cars. Light- and medium-sized truck specialist Isuzu has for years has focused on diesel engine technology and has yet to market fully electric vehicles. But a price tag starting around $70,000 for the Clarity and scant hydrogen fueling infrastructure globally, Honda has seen limited take-up of that model and other FCVs since they began marketing them around 2015. In 2018 Honda sold just 654 Clarity FCVs, which are available only in Japan and the United States through leasing programs, compared with Honda's total annual global sales of 5.23 million cars. The partnership is the latest in a growing trend among vehicle makers joining forces to better compete in an industry upended by the rise of electric vehicles, self-driving cars and other new technologies. Honda and Isuzu are reviving their vehicle partnership following an agreement in the early 1990s under which Isuzu manufactured sport utility vehicles for Honda in the North American market.

Almost two months after the Lexus UX 300e's world debut in China, the automaker has released details about the European-spec model.

Renault and Nissan are denying recent media reports of a potential split, saying that the Alliance is safe and sound.

Nissan announced plans to build an all-new Frontier back in 2017, but the company hasn't said much about the redesigned pickup since then. However, new details are starting to emerge as several dealers, who have seen the truck, told Autoblog what to expect.

BEIRUT — Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn said on Tuesday that the French ambassador had warned him shortly after his arrest that his own company was plotting against him. "Frankly, I was shocked by the arrest, and the first thing I asked is make sure Nissan knows so they can send me a lawyer," Ghosn told Reuters in an interview in Beirut. "And the second day, 24 hours from this, I received a visit from the French ambassador who told me: 'Nissan is turning against you'. And this is where I realized that the whole thing was a plot." Former Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa, who was forced to resign last year after admitting that he had received improper compensation, told a news conference shortly after Ghosn's arrest that Ghosn had been using corporate money for personal purposes and under-reporting his income for years. The arrest of Ghosn, widely respected for rescuing the carmaker from near-bankruptcy, has put Japan's criminal justice system under international scrutiny. Among the practices now under the spotlight are keeping suspects in detention for long periods and excluding defense lawyers from interrogations, which can last eight hours a day. "When he told me that 'two hours or three hours later, after your arrest, Saikawa went in a press conference and made his infamous statement where he said, you know, 'I am horrified, but what I'm learning...'' — so when he told me he made these statements, I said 'Oh my God this is a plot'." Ghosn, 65, fled Japan last month while awaiting trial on charges of under-reporting earnings, breach of trust and misappropriation of company funds, all of which he denies. The one-time titan of the car industry said the alternative to fleeing would have been to spend the rest of his life languishing in Japan without a fair trial. Ghosn said he had escaped to his childhood home of Lebanon in order to clear his name. He noted that there were conflicting stories about his astonishing escape, but declined to say how he had managed to flee. Tokyo prosecutors said his allegations of a conspiracy were false and that he had failed to justify his acts. The 14-month saga has shaken the global auto industry and jeopardized the Renault-Nissan alliance, of which Ghosn was the mastermind. Japan's Ministry of Justice has said it will try to find a way to bring Ghosn back from Lebanon, even the countries have no extradition treaty. Ghosn said the Japanese authorities were intent on preventing him from having a just trial.