Urban Mobility
New vehicle sales in South-east Asia’s six largest markets rose by 10.6% to 781,162 units in the second quarter of 2016, from 706,532 units in the same period of last year, according to data collected exclusively for just-auto by AsiaMotorBusiness.com. This follows a 3.6% decline in the first-quarter of the year, resulting in a 3.2% rise in cumulative first-half sales to
Read moreToyota, Mitsubishi and Volvo had the largest improvements among brands with more than one nameplate in J.D. Power’s latest study of new-vehicle appeal, while Porsche paced the industry for the 12th consecutive year. Luxury brands again ruled the upper tier of J.D. Power’s 2016 U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout Study. BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Land Rover, Lexus and Lincoln followed
Read moreDespite optimism about rising car exports in full-year 2016, the latest data from Gaikindo show that Indonesia’s car exports in fact fell 17.9 percent (y/y) to 73,524 CBUs in the January-May 2016 period from 89,544 units in the same period one year earlier. However, this weak performance is mainly due to the delay in exports of the Toyota All New
Read moreToyota is considering phasing out diesels entirely, Karl Schlicht—executive vice president of Toyota Europe—said in a recent interview with British magazine Autocar. Stricter emissions standards are one reason for this potential change, Schlicht said, but Toyota also doesn’t find them to be particularly important to its bottom line. The Yaris diesel model makes up less than 10 percent of the
Read moreThe world’s largest automaker ponied up a one-time fee—believed to be $20 million—and became the eighth full member of a consortium that most people do not associate with the auto industry at all. It’s called the Open Invention Network, and its other members are Google, IBM, Red Hat , NEC, Philips, Sony, and SUSE (a unit of Britain’s Micro Focus).
Read moreVisiongain, an analysis firm based in the U.K., released a report this month listing the top 20 connected car companies. Volvo, Ford and Honda, Tesla and Toyota were among the top 10 automotive manufacturers in the connected car market, which Visiongain projects to be worth $35.7 billion in 2016 alone. Toyota and Tesla also made the MIT Technology Review list
Read moreToyota is entering the electric vehicle market in New Zealand – but with used cars, not new. Toyota NZ has begun purchasing low-mileage three-year old third-generation plug-in Prius vehicles in Japan, putting them through its Signature Class used vehicle refurbishment process at Thames, then offering them on the Kiwi market with prices between $35,000 and $40,000. The company it is
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