Shiotsu Autotrade Japan – President’s Blog

Soon Japanese Vending Machines will Charge Electric Cars Too

We all know that soda and other beverages, and even candy can be sourced from a street-side vending machine.  But in Japan they even have vending machines offering hot beverages like tea and coffee in the winter.  And now, guess what Japanese vending machines will be doing next?  They’ll be helping the Japanese motorists to charge their electric cars as well!

Recently, there was an announcement by a consortium of companies from Japan that they had decided on installing a number of electric vehicle chargers at beverage vending machines across the country.  The consortium comprises telecom companies, electronics makers, and a vending machine manufacturer – Forking Co. – an organization that owns around half of the vending machines, over one million in all, across Japan.

The reasons behind this interesting move include the setting up of additional recharging infrastructure in the country which was sadly lacking till now, and to bring about higher sales of electric cars.  According to Forking, eventually, the chargers will be incorporated into the vending machines themselves.

The innovative proposal of providing electric vehicle chargers at the ubiquitous street corner vending machines could also provide the solution to another problem.  It could help allay the fears and concerns in Japan about electric cars not being able to go a long enough distance on a charge.  To help relieve the apprehensions of consumers, Japan’s electric car manufacturers, Toyota and Nissan, had announced last year that they would be attempting to standardize the recharging stations across Japan, and would eventually create an international standard.  Electric cars usually have to depend on expensive batteries, but yet provide consumers with a disappointingly short driving range.  This is one of the main drawbacks of electric cars and the reason why they are still not very popular even though they are environment friendly vehicles.

Early this year, Mazda announced it was going to take a leap into the electric vehicle arena launching its own battery-operated vehicle in Japan by 2012.  Ford has announced its own lineup of electric car models in the US. President Obama has asked his countrymen to make the U.S. the first nation in the world to have one million electric vehicles on the road by the year 2015.  Till now however sales remain low.  As per Engadget’s announcement, only 67 Nissan Leafs and 281 Chevy Volts were sold in February in America, thus indicating brighter chances for Japan to lead the electric vehicle race.

During the first year of the project, scheduled to commence soon, the consortium plans to install 10,000 electric chargers at various vending machine sites across Japan.  So now electric vehicle  owners in the country can look forward to better recharging facilities.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Japanese, electric cars, vending machines, electric vehicle

Earthquake and Tsunami affects Automobile Industry in Japan

The massive earthquake that occurred in the Miyagi prefecture of Japan on Match 11, has affected normal life in many parts of the northern Japan.  We were grateful to our customers who inquired about us well being. Osaka being far from the site of the earthquake, life is normal here.  However, Japan’s automotive sector was severely disrupted by the 9.0 magnitude earthquake followed by the tsunami that struck the country last Friday.

Currently, auto makers in Japan are constantly evaluating the destruction brought on by the earthquake and the tsunami that had ravaged the coastal regions along the Miyagi prefecture.  Their assessment has revealed that Japan’s car industry will be more deeply affected by these calamities than what was thought earlier.

Leading Japanese car makers like Honda Motor Co., Isuzu Motors Ltd., Hino Motors, Nissan Motor Co., and Toyota Motor Corp., have had to shut down their manufacturing plants in northern Japan after the earthquake disrupted the power supply.  Production is expected to be stopped till March 18 at most of the facilities in the affected areas.

Japan Quake Disrupts Auto Shipments

Nissan Motor announced that around 2,300 new vehicles had been swept away by the waves of the tsunami, two offices and four facilities were slightly damaged, and minor injuries were caused to employees at their Toguchi plant.  Nissan also reported it was still checking on its subsidiaries.

Fuji Heavy Industries, the parent company of Subaru, has shelved production at eight of its ten plants, including the five factories exclusively manufacturing vehicles.

The damage reported at several large automobile factories was minimal, but things were worse for a few suppliers.  In the areas most severely affected by the earthquake, subsidiary operations also took a big hit. Such plants handled the production and supply of transmissions, brakes, torque converters, wheels, and other components.  The transportation networks required for moving vehicles and auto parts were so badly affected that a quick recovery may not be possible.

Most Japanese car makers, particularly Toyota, are known for carrying out tight operations with just-in-time inventory systems where the different components and sub-assemblies are assembled into vehicles soon after arriving at the main plant.  Some of the smaller suppliers located in the more severely damaged areas could take several days or even weeks to get back to their full capacity.

Labor, fuel supplies, electrical supply, rail and highway transportation, shipping ports handling cars for export, and many such elements that are crucially important for the production and distribution of vehicles were all disrupted by  the earthquake and tsunami.  Most auto makers may keep their assembly plants shut till the supply chain recovers sufficiently to handle the demands of normal production and this won’t happen very soon.

There is no denying that all Japanese car manufacturers have been badly affected by the recent calamities in some way or the other. Efforts are still on to also assess the full magnitude of the damage caused to the ports, ships, as well as the crew necessary for transporting the models to overseas markets.

We expect that all used car export activities from the major ports in Japan – Kobe, Osaka, Nagoya, Yokohama and Tokyo – to function as normal; however,  there may be delays in shipments of vehicles.

Project for developing electric trucks initiated in Japan

The Japanese government has decided to go all out and give the major auto manufacturers in the country the competitive advantage over others in the world in the area of electric trucks.

Currently, buses and trucks account for over 7% of Japan’s combined carbon dioxide emissions.  If there were to be a significant switch over to electric trucks in the country this would impact the amount of emissions considerably.  A more wide spread use of electric trucks and better emission controls would certainly lower carbon dioxide emissions.

In a bid to popularize the use of electric trucks across Japan, the Transport Ministry is now going to execute a project in collaboration with leading automakers for developing new technologies and establishing performance standards and rules for the small and midsize electric trucks.

This project is expected to give the Japanese auto makers an edge in the global market in the area of electric trucks, a market that is still largely untapped.  The Transport Ministry is considering investing a huge sum of over 1 billion yen by way of subsidies into this venture over the next four years.

In April, the Ministry will be calling for participation from among the different vehicle makers in the country and hopes to commence with verification testing in the fiscal year 2012.  Some of the companies that have been reported to have expressed an interest in this project include Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp., Hino Motors, Isuzu Motors, and also UD Trucks Corp., which was earlier called Nissan Diesel.

One of the key goals of this project will be to develop a high-performance control system so that the stack of batteries in the electric truck will be more efficiently used for powering the electric motor.  Later on, by fiscal 2014, the Transport Ministry intends to lay down the basic criteria for ensuring battery durability, including factors such as impacts and vibrations, and also set manufacturing guidelines.

Zero-emission electric trucks like the Mitsubishi Fuso Truck are very suitable for use in crowded traffic conditions.  That is why the Transport Ministry is trying to do its part in supporting and promoting the use of such electric trucks.  Nowadays, there is also a growing awareness among truck owners that going in for cleaner solutions like making the switch to all-electric trucks would also mean considerable price savings.  And with the Transport Ministry supporting development of new technologies, the efficiency of electric trucks in Japan will improve too.

Technorati Tags: Hino, Isuzu, UD Trucks, electric trucks, Japan