Shiotsu Autotrade Japan – President’s Blog

Fuso unveils battery powered concept truck – Canter E-Cell

Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks recently showed off its commercial-duty, battery-powered concept truck – Fuso Canter E-Cell – at the IAA Commercial Vehicles Expo in Hanover, Germany.  The hugely successful Canter Eco Hybrid was a result of Fuso’s last venture into green trucks.  The battery powered Fuso Canter E-Cell truck’s  design is based on the design of the  popular Mitsubishi Canter truck. The Canter E-Cell can cover a distance of 120 km (75 miles) on a single charge.  The Canter E-Cell has gross vehicle weight of 3.5 tons and can achieve speeds of almost 50 mph or 80 km/hr.   Mitsubishi Fuso has no doubt that the zero-emission truck is ideally suitable for working in crowded city traffic.

In these days of recession and tough economic times, businesses are looking for ways to cut down operating costs without affecting production.  So there is an increasing awareness about the price savings that can be achieved by going for cleaner solutions such as moving from diesel-only trucks to such all-electric trucks.  The battery powered Canter E-Cell is only a concept truck for now.  But soon its production version will roll out offering an even greener option for commercial vehicles.

Canter E-Cell batteries are fitted along the frame rails of the truck.  The batteries require six hours of charging from a 380 volt source, when fully depleted.  The Canter E-Cell trucks uses batteries similar to the ones that are used in the Vito E-Cell – an electric truck from Daimler – Mitsubishi Fuso’s parent firm.  According to Mitsubishi Fuso, the batteries are designed to last 300,000 km (185,000 miles) or ten years.

The Vito manufactured by Daimler is a light-duty vehicle, whereas the Canter is much bigger truck, which is typically sold as a Diesel Class 3 or hybrid truck in Japan and other countries.  Mitsubishi Fuso plans to launch the Canter E-Cell following the success of its Canter Eco Hybrid.  Over 1,000 Fuso Eco Hybrid commercial trucks have been sold in Japan, Ireland, Hong Kong, and Australia so far.  The vehicle tested well in a testing done for more than 360,000 km covered in a period of two years.  Fuso Canter Eco hybrids have demonstrated a significant savings of up to 15% fuel over their diesel only versions.  The 2 ton category Canter Eco Hybrid is currently the most fuel efficient commercial truck in Japan, which delivers about 11.6 km per liter.

Nissan rolls out Fuga Hybrid in Japan

Nissan has been busy promoting its Leaf all-electric car in the U.S., but in Japan the excitement centers on its new Fuga hybrid.  Nissan entered the hybrid cars market by unveiling its Fuga luxury hybrid sedan in Japan yesterday.  Fuga is first mass produced hybrid car from Nissan and it will be available for sale in first week of November in Japan.  Fuga hybrid will be priced around 5.7 million yen, compared with 4 million yen for its gasoline model Infinity M.

The Fuga luxury sedan gasoline model is known as the Infiniti M in the United States.  Nissan has been selling Altima sedans in the United States to clear clean-air regulations of California for which they used Toyota’s hybrid system.  However, this new hybrid by Nissan is a great excitement for Japanese, as it is Nissan’s first gasoline-electric hybrid developed in-house, not depending on rivals Honda and Toyota which have a decade long experience in manufacturing hybrid cars.

Fuga makes use of one-motor and two-clutch parallel hybrid system specifically to achieve better fuel economy compared to all other high end gas/electric sedans.  This system helps Fuga to give almost double the mileage as compared to any other conventional gasoline-engine version (19km per liter).  The system connects the 3.5-liter V6 engine and the electric motor directly to the transmission.  This results in improved efficiency as there is no need of a traditional torque converter.  Nissan claims that Fuga’s one motor system is much better than Toyota’s “series parallel” two-motor complex system.

The hybrid version of Fuga uses a lithium-ion battery which can be chargee and discharged at a rapid rate.  The rapid discharging rate makes transmission between the two systems smoother than any other hybrids.  NEC’s joint venture Automotive Energy Supply and Nissan will supply these batteries for Fuga

The new Fuga Sedan is available in a range of models and has various other features like open, comfortable and spacious Interior, dynamic exterior design.  Fuga Sedan is featured with various safety features like school zone alert system , Lane departure prevention, Adaptive front lighting system etc.

Nissan expects to sell 200 Fuga units per year in Japan which is approximately 25% of gasoline engine version’s sale in a month.  It is also expected that its market value in the Japanese auto market will go up compared to CR-Z and Fit vehicles by Honda and Prius hybrid by Toyota.  In Japan, Fuga sedan will qualify for the tax break for next generation vehicle which means it will get exemptions from automobile weight tax and automobile acquisition tax.  The 2.5-liter engine model of Fuga sedan qualifies for environment-friendly preferential tax scheme in Japan.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Fuga hybrid, Fuga, Nissan

Toyota partners with Daihatsu to enter mini car market in Japan

As per the latest news, Toyota Motor Corporation – the largest auto manufacturer in the world, is all set to get into the small cars (Kei Cars) market.  The Japanese car maker recently announced that it would include the 660 cc mini cars made by its subsidiary company Daihatsu, in their product line in Japan, starting from autumn 2011.  This is the first time Toyota will cater to the small car market in order to meet the rising demand for mini cars.  Toyota would be last of the Japan’s auto manufacturers to enter the small car market.

In Japan the major players that operate in the small car market are Daihatsu, Suzuki and Mitsubishi.  Daihatsu – 51% owned by Toyota is the largest mini car maker in Japan.  Suzuki is the second largest mini car maker in Japan which also supplies small cars to brands such as Nissan and Mazda.

Toyota,  it its latest alliance with Daihatsu, will market small cars manufactured by Daihatsu, under its own brand.  Toyota has taken this step to strengthen its position in the Japan domestic market, as Toyota’s profitability in overseas markets is going down because of a strong yen.  This move also reflects Toyota’s decision to expand its product line in the International market.  Car makers like Suzuki became successful by adopting small car strategy to enter developing markets like India.

In Japan, mini cars (kei cars) have become very popular among cost conscious customers because of their low price, lower taxes, high fuel efficiency and overall lower running costs.  Also, these small cars are well suited to narrow roads in Japan.  Mini cars are fitted with engines that have capacities 660 cc or less.  In the past couple of years, there was a big demand for bigger hybrid cars in Japan, because of the tax incentives offered by the Japanese government.  However, these tax incentives are going to end soon, and there would be an increasing number of customers shifting to small cars.  Of the overall auto market in Japan, mini cars sales were to the tune of 37 percent – up from 32 percent in 2004 – so auto makers in Japan can not ignore the small car market.

Toyota will target major cities and also some rural areas in north and south Japan for introducing mini cars under its own brand.  Mini vehicles have about 50% market share in these rural areas.  For Daihatsu, the bad news is that Toyota may become a big competitor in the mini car market; however, on the good side Daihatsu will increase its annual production of cars because of this new deal.

Daihatsu, as a part of the alliance, will supply 3 different mini car models to Toyota starting from autmn of 2011.  Toyota plans to sell roughly 60,000 mini cars in its first year of introduction.  Though this number may look very small compared to its  global sales target of 7.5 million vehicles for 2010, this is definitely a great strategic move by Toyota.

Technorati Tags: small car market, Toyota, small car, Daihatsu, Suzuki, Japan