Honda Cars : Struggling Mazda Looking for News Partners | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

By Nat Shirley
Thursday, Feb 9th, 2012 @ 10:17 am
Facing what will likely be its fourth straight year of financial losses, Mazda is seeking partners to share development and manufacturing costs as the company tries to return to profitability.

Mazda CEO Takashi Yamanouchi says the company is “actively” seeking partners and is “considering every option” in an attempt to raise more capital to stave off a possible downgrade to its credit rating, Automotive News reports. Mazda has forecast a net loss of $1.29 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, which would represent the automaker’s worst financial showing in 11 years.
Mazda’s struggles are partially attributable to the continued strength of the yen – Mazda exports a greater percentage of its vehicles from Japan than any other automaker, meaning more of its sales result in slim profit margins because of the unfriendly home currency. Another issue lies with several weak-selling products – in America, Madza’s entrants in the all-import midsize sedan and small crossover segments, the Mazda6 and Tribute/CX-7, have largely been sales disappointments.
Still, there is plenty of potential for the Zoom-Zoom automaker to return to financial health. The company is building a plant in Mexico to counter the strength of the yen, and its sales fortunes could soon improve with the launch of the new CX-5 crossover and as its fuel-efficient SkyActiv technology continues to spread throughout the model range.
A partner to help defray costs would also be an asset – Mazda has been going it alone since former partner Ford sold its shares in the Japanese automaker over the past few years.

Source;

http://www.leftlanenews.com/struggling-mazda-looking-for-partners.html

Honda Cars : Honda President Ito Forecasts Year of ‘Complete Rebound' | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Honda Motor Co. President Takanobu Ito forecast that business results at Japan's third-biggest carmaker will climb to the highest in at least five years, led by sales of Accord sedans and Civic compacts in North America.

Business results in the year ending March 2013 will recover to levels achieved before the failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. roiled global markets, as sales climb above 4 million vehicles for the first time, Ito said in an interview this week. Lehman filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, six months after Honda earned record annual profits.

“It will be the year of the complete rebound,” Ito said at the company's Tokyo headquarters. “Sales in North America will lead the recovery. We'll introduce a fully revamped Accord in the fall, and that will be a big plus to our sales.”

Ito's comments reflect a revival in confidence by Japanese automakers as they recover from a year plagued by natural disasters at home and in Thailand. Toyota Motor Corp., Asia's largest carmaker, said this week annual sales will be 100,000 units higher than it anticipated last month.

“Honda's targets are definitely aggressive, but the U.S. economy seems like it's going to recover to a better-than- expected level this year so it's likely for them to achieve it,” said Mitsushige Akino, who oversees $600 million at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. in Tokyo. “They've remodeled their best-selling cars, and we can expect strong sales in North America to help them regain market share.”

Reversal of Fortune
Honda fell 1.9 percent to close at 2,689 yen in Tokyo. It's gained 15 percent this year, the best performer among Japan's three biggest automakers. That's a reversal from 2011, when the stock's 27 percent drop made it the worst performer.

Honda's operating income, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, will probably double to 586.6 billion yen ($7.6 billion) next fiscal year after shrinking 52 percent, according to the average of 24 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Earnings reached 953.1 billion yen, 851.9 billion yen and 868.9 billion yen, respectively, in the years before Lehman's bankruptcy.

Ito, 58, is counting on the U.S. market to drive growth.

Redesigned Accord
The redesigned Accord sedan, the Civic and CR-V sport- utility vehicle will help Honda increase U.S. sales 24 percent to 1.43 million units in 2012, Ito said. Sales in the market, Honda's largest, declined 6.8 percent last year, led by a 17 percent drop in deliveries of the Accord. The Accord is Honda's best-selling U.S. model, followed by the Civic.

Ito ruled out any major overhaul of the Civic after the current version of the sedan, which failed to receive the “recommended” status its predecessors had from Consumer Reports magazine, was the best-selling model in the compact-car segment in the last three months of the year.

Honda's new models will give it an edge in the U.S. over South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co., which is producing close to full-capacity, said Kota Yuzawa, a Tokyo-based analyst at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. That puts Honda in “good position” to regain lost market share, he said.

Honda may not be alone. Japan's three biggest carmakers are poised to gain market share this year at the expense of U.S. producers led by General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co., according to five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

‘Unstoppable' Motorization
In China, the world's largest auto market, Honda expects its sales to rise more than 20 percent to 750,000 units in 2012 after they shrank for the first time in 2011 in a slowing market, Ito said. The company plans to introduce three gas- electric hybrid models in the country this year, he said.

“China is still strong,” Ito said. “Once motorization captures a market, it's unstoppable.”

China's total vehicle sales -- including cars, trucks and buses -- grew 2.5 percent to 18.5 million units last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, trailing growth in the U.S. for the first time in at least 14 years. Honda expects the market to expand to 20 million this year, or “just above” China's economic growth, he said.

In Thailand, where the country's worst floods in almost 70 years disrupted assembly plants and supply of components in 2011, Honda plans to resume production starting in April, Ito said. Damages stemming from Thailand forced the company to scrap this fiscal year's profit forecast.

Reorganizing Factories
As part of Honda's strategy of producing cars where they are sold, the company plans to reorganize its Japanese factories so they focus on production of minicars, a growing category that makes up about 40 percent of the nation's auto demand, Ito said. Orders for the N Box minicar in Japan reached 27,000 units in its first month of sales, more than double Honda's original target.

Minicars, defined as vehicles no longer than 3.4 meters (11 feet) in length, will account for 40 percent of Honda's Japan sales, compared with 25 percent now, Ito said.

Honda joins Toyota and Nissan in reorganizing operations as the yen, which has gained against the world's 16 most-traded currencies for two straight years, erodes the value of exports. Honda plans to boost the portion of vehicles sold in the same region they're built to as high as 80 percent, Ito said. In 2010, Honda sold about two out of three Japan-built cars in the country.

Officials at Toyota and Nissan this month have also echoed plans to increase their portion of vehicles sold in the region where they're assembled.

“Minicars will be key for us in Japan in the next five years,” Ito said.

Source;
http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LYALB80UQVI901-3I262TT8I3HDDBE46BK1GAN789

Honda Cars : Jalponik.com : How A Cadaver Made Your Car Safer | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

Whoa....gruesome, but it's hard to argue with the results....
A highly-promoted feature in the 2011 Ford Explorer are its new inflatable rear seat belts. The not-so-highly-promoted working stiffs that helped make it happen? Human cadavers. Here's how automakers still quietly use dead people to make your car safer.

When automakers and safety advocates show off the results of crash tests, they inevitably run video showing empty vehicles or crash test dummies; back in the 1980s, they even turned the dummies into lovable cartoon characters. What the industry doesn't like talking about is how much of the safety innovation in vehicles was built around testing cadavers.

Since the 1930s, when researchers at Wayne State University first threw a body down an elevator shaft to see what kind of forces it could sustain, cadavers have been essential to making driving safer. Every part of a car touching on safety — from steering columns and laminated windshields to side-impact air bags — has science from cadaver tests making sure they work.

"It's still very important," said Priya Prasad, a former top safety researcher at Ford. "Even though we have very good math modeling of dummies, human modeling hasn't reached that state yet."

Automakers prefer to keep their names away from such ickiness. When a Swedish researcher told a newspaper in 2008 that General Motors and Saab were using cadavers in research, both companies quickly denied the story. And as far as the denial goes, it's true: automakers don't have the medical resources that cadaver tests require.

But universities do. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration funds scores of cadaver tests at schools across the country every year; many of those schools also get grants from automakers. And the data they gather can be shared widely.

That's the case with Ford's inflatable seat belts, an idea it's been testing for several years. The 2011 Explorer will be the first vehicle in the world to offer them, and Ford has made the belts a highlight of the safety features offered to compete against other family haulers.

But before the system could be sold, Ford had to answer myriad questions. Just because it has an air bag doesn't mean the belts would automatically do a better job of shielding passengers from injuries than standard seat belts. It could even be worse: What would happen to children who were sleeping on the belts when they inflated?

Most of Ford's tests used the family of dummies developed by the industry, including ones that mimic children. But without a cadaver test, Ford couldn't know for sure how the inflatable belt would affect internal organs and tissues.

Typically in cadaver tests, as the one pictured above run by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, researchers swaddle the body in stockings, including one over its face, partly for scientific reasons and partly out of respect. The arms and hands, if still attached, are bound in place to keep them from moving during a simulated crash, and sensors record the forces on various parts.

After the test, researchers would likely have used x-rays and autopsies to examine how much damage the cadaver sustained. Ford shared the results with NHTSA but deemed them confidential business information — meaning we can't access them by way of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request — but given that the belts are going on sale, we can guess the tests were successful.

Universities which run such tests have standard procedures for handling cadavers that cover every step of the process, from informing the relatives of a donor what the body will be used for to disposing of the remains.

Ford spokesman Wes Sherwood said the company, like the rest of the industry, was trying to move into digital modeling for crash testing whenever possible. It's far cheaper to run thousands of computer simulations of a crash test with a digital wireframe than to do even one test with a dummy. And either test is less squeamish to the general public than crash-testing involving a once-living, breathing body. It's no wonder they're in no mood to publicize their continued, but still very necessary, use.

"If there's a specific need (for a cadaver test), we will look outside the company to see if someone can help, but most of our work is digital," Sherwood said.

Albert King, a professor at Wayne State who has been working in cadaver research since 1966, said the school's tests had fallen off in recent years; where it used to do one cadaver test a month on average, it now did a few a year if that. King once estimated that such tests saved 8,500 lives a year.

The major reason? After six decades, there's not much room left to improve safety inside the car. With even low-end vehicles offering eight air bags, most research has turned toward how to prevent crashes in the first place.

"We have most of the information we need," King said. "The rest of it we're doing through computer."

But it's not just cars that benefit. Researchers have drawn on Wayne State's cadaver work to design helmets that might prevent concussions in NFL players. NASA has used cadavers to test crashworthiness in the past, and the Defense Department-backed studies rely on cadaver work to better understand traumatic brain injuries.

Prasad says as good as computer models are, they still can't capture the exact essence of how human tissue reacts.

"It's always a good idea when you're developing something to do cadaver testing," he said.

Source;
http://jalopnik.com/5622667/how-a-cadaver-made-your-car-safer

Honda Cars : How Long can Honda 'Go it Alone'? | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

Here are a couple of good articles....
Daimler-Renault-Nissan deal puts spotlight on scale

(Reuters) - The link-up between Renault-Nissan and Daimler (DAIGn.DE) shows the urgent need for scale in an industry still reeling from a collapse in demand and gearing up for massive investment in green-car technology.

Under intense pressure to shave costs, automakers just outside the top global sales ranks are certain to face calls to develop or expand alliances or to explain to their shareholders why they are betting off going it alone.

That will mean renewed scrutiny of growth strategies by the likes of Japan's Mitsubishi Motors (7211.T), France's PSA Peugeot Citroen (PEUP.PA), Germany's BMW (BMWG.DE) and even Italy's Fiat (FIA.MI), analysts say.

"We are going to see some significant mergers, acquisitions, restructurings and spinoffs," said David Cole, director of the Center of Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Just three years ago, Daimler moved to unwind one of the least successful deals in the history of the auto industry, dumping its Chrysler unit for a $30 billion loss.

Now, the Mercedes-maker has decided a more limited deal with the Renault-Nissan (RENA.PA) (7201.T) alliance headed by Carlos Ghosn will give it the small-car technology and scope it needs in the face of tighter emissions and fuel economy standards.

In return, Renault-Nissan will get access to Daimler's engines for Nissan's luxury Infiniti brand and the opportunity to share vehicle platforms and bring down costs at a time when its own alliance has been seen as sputtering.

Cole said the deal could be a blueprint for future collaboration in a high-cost area: developing the engine, transmission and now battery-drive systems that power vehicles.

"The historic view is that the powertrain defines the personality of the vehicle in the eyes of consumers. That's probably not true anymore," he said.

FIAT TO FOLLOW?
For smaller players such as Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp (7269.T), developing technologies such as a complex hybrid system on its own was not an option, which is why it aligned itself with Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) late last year.

Similarly, last month, Mazda Motor (7261.T) struck a deal to buy hybrid technology from market-leader Toyota Motor (7203.T).

Elsewhere, Italy's Fiat last year teamed up with bankrupt Chrysler, and analysts said it could look for further partners in Asia after having formed joint ventures with Tata Motors Ltd (TAMO.BO) in India and others in China and Russia.

"I could easily see Fiat shopping for another alliance in Asia," said Logan Robinson, a professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law and former auto executive.

China is likely to be a key. Its emergence as the world's largest car market has been a boon to sales for U.S., European and Japanese car makers, but it has also created competitors such as Geely (0175.HK) -- fresh off its acquisition of Sweden's Volvo -- with deep pockets and global ambitions.

Still, after the numerous false starts over the past two decades -- most notably with the spectacular break-up of DaimlerChrysler after nine years -- some analysts remain skeptical that alliances can deliver as promised.

"I'm hoping that others don't go down this path" taken by Renault-Nissan and Daimler, said Erich Merkle, analyst at Autoconomy.com. "If you look at the history of alliances...they have a very checkered past. Most of them haven't worked.

While financial markets tend to price progress in quarters, it can take four years or longer to capture the full cost savings from collaboration in developing a new vehicle even if everything goes as planned, analysts say.

TOUGH EXECUTION
Even Nissan and Renault, lauded as a rare example of an alliance that has worked, has had a mediocre start.

After a decade together, the partners admitted last year to needing deeper integration, putting in place a more formal structure to squeeze out synergies that engineers had resisted. The partnership saved near-bankrupt Nissan from demise, but Renault has fallen into a slump Ghosn has struggled to reverse.

That could be a lesson for Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, who faces the daunting task of integrating Chrysler after taking a 20 percent stake in the weakest U.S. carmaker out of a U.S.-government funded bankruptcy.

Marchionne has said that automakers need global sales of at least 6 million cars and trucks to be competitive on cost. The Daimler-Renault-Nissan alliance would just clear that hurdle with global sales of just over 6 million units.

Fiat-Chrysler remains short of the mark, closer to 4.5 million units. But size alone is no guarantee of success.

General Motors Co GM.UL is a case in point. After its own 2009 bankruptcy, GM, like crosstown rival Ford Motor Co (F.N), is struggling bring the focus back to its core brands, led by Chevy.
Even Toyota, the world's top automaker, has proven that the bigger the ship, the tougher it is to steer. Rather than seek tie-ups, Toyota has said it would slim down its vehicle line-up to become more nimble and efficient.

FLYING SOLO
Having failed to agree terms on a capital alliance with Frances PSA, Japan's Mitsubishi Motors is seen by analysts in need of a partner to offset the cost of developing advanced technologies in areas like battery-powered cars.

But Mitsubishi President Osamu Masuko told Reuters last month that equity-based tie-ups were no guarantee of success.

"We have to remember that a capital alliance is no panacea," Masuko said. "If it were, then why didn't it work for us with Chrysler? Or with Daimler? What happened with all the capital ties that General Motors had?"

Honda Motor Co (7267.T) also believes it can find new efficiencies in-house will as Japan's second-biggest automaker continues to shun alliances, much like BMW.

"The key now is figuring out how to efficiently develop and produce cars," Honda executive Fumihiko Ike said last month. "And if the company becomes too big, efficiencies will also fail."

Honda, which prides itself in being the world's top engine maker and one of the few carmakers to produce its own transmissions, says it is open to tying up with battery and other components makers to develop next-generation vehicles.

BMW, meanwhile, has project-based ties, including with PSA in small engines, and expects its cooperation on sourcing with Daimler will continue, notwithstanding the latter's deal with Renault and Nissan.

"We don't want to give up our independence," BMW Chief Financial Officer Friedrich Eichiner said. "I don't see a big problem if a manufacturer like Daimler is now cooperating with Nissan. They must have reasons to do that."

(Additional reporting by Soyoung Kim in DETROIT; Irene Preisinger in MUNICH; Jo Winterbottom in MILAN; John Bowker in MOSCOW; Helen Massy-Beresford in PARIS; William Rigby in SEATTLE; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

Source;

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6361K520100407

Car industry braces for further shakeup

Pressure to cut development costs intense Kana Inagaki

By KANA INAGAKI
Kyodo News

YOKOHAMA — With Nissan Motor Co. and its French partner Renault SA looking to expand their clout through a new cross-sharing deal with Germany's Daimler AG, the big question is: who is next in the realignment of the global auto industry?

In Japan, experts say eyes are on Honda Motor Co., the nation's second-largest automaker, although it has so far shown no indication of ditching its trademark go-it-alone policy.

Pressure has been heavy on carmakers to pursue expansion of scale to save on development costs of highly expensive green technology and to secure their foothold in fast-growing emerging markets by offering affordable compacts.

In the latest agreement, the Nissan-Renault alliance and Daimler will mutually swap 3.1 percent in shares to cooperate in the development of next-generation compact cars and to share fuel-efficient engine technology.

Just a few months earlier, Suzuki Motor Corp. inked a capital tieup with Volkswagen AG, as the German automaker seeks to expand its presence in India, where Suzuki has established a solid presence, while the Japanese automaker turns to Volkswagen's expertise in developing environmentally friendly vehicles.

"It costs a lot to develop wide-ranging technologies, and there is no clear favorite among the scattered environmental technologies, including electric vehicles and hybrids," said Takashi Akiyama, vice president of SC-ABeam Automotive Consulting.

"Also, with the rapid expansion of emerging markets, it's hard for an automaker to make it on its own," he said. "Expansion of scale is necessary for survival, and further realignment in the industry is anticipated."

With dwindling choices for cross-border alliances, attention has naturally fallen on Honda, one of the strongest players in the industry. The automaker has continued to eke out profits, even as most auto giants sank into the red after the financial crisis hit in 2008.

"You need great energy to reach an understanding with an alliance partner and time is quickly lost during that process," Fumihiko Ike, Honda's head of Asia and Oceania operations, recently told reporters. "It's faster to do it alone."

But analysts said even Honda, which sells the Fit compact and the Insight hybrid, may eventually need to shift course and look outside as rivals pose a rising threat by becoming bigger and more cost-efficient.

"There is no need to immediately join forces since its products, centering on compact cars, are selling well," said Shigeru Matsumura, an auto analyst at SMBC Friend Research Center. "But Honda will probably not be able to stay the way it is as others form alliances and boost their cost competitiveness."

Tatsuya Mizuno, a former auto analyst at Fitch Ratings in Tokyo and current representative of consulting firm Mizuno Credit Advisory, also suggested Honda may ally with South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. in a shakeup that he predicted will consolidate the industry into five major automotive groups.

The dramatic shift in the global auto sector also comes as an unprecedented safety crisis pounds the carefully cultivated reputation of Toyota Motor Corp., the world's largest carmaker.

With global sales of nearly 8 million vehicles, Toyota remains ahead in terms of both scale and product lineup with minicar maker Daihatsu Motor Co. and truck maker Hino Motors Ltd. under its wing.

A pioneer in gas-electric hybrid technology, it also has close ties with Mazda Motor Corp. and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., which makes the Subaru brand and is owned 16.5 percent by Toyota.
Yet, the current story of Toyota includes a series of safety lapses, which its president, Akio Toyoda, has blamed on an aggressive drive for volume at the expense of product quality.

"The advantages of scale are huge and will need to be pursued as they become increasingly important," Mizuno said. "But as the scale becomes bigger, the question is whether you can maintain strong management."

Despite the hype over the emergence of new alliances, deals have frequently collapsed in the past, including the breakup of Daimler and Chrysler Group LLC.

"When we came together with Chrysler, we were in agreement about the merger, but we hadn't had much thought about content of collaboration," Daimler Chairman Dieter Zetsche said at a news conference in Brussels, emphasizing that the relationship with Renault and Nissan will be "totally different."

Nissan President Carlos Ghosn, who concurrently serves as chief executive officer of Renault, said the "strategic cooperation" with Daimler — not to be mistaken with an alliance — will be long-term, while the pursuit of scale will continue as Nissan and Renault vie to become the No. 1 automotive group.

Source;

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/print/nb20100409a2.html