No Reserve All Power Sliding Door Alloy Wheels Awd Dual A/c Runs Great Serviced on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Suzuki and Daihatsu join Toyota electric vehicle venture

TOKYO — Suzuki Motor Corp and Daihatsu are joining a commercial electric vehicle coalition led by Toyota Motor Corp, the carmakers announced on Wednesday, helping the Japanese alliance expand its focus from trucks to smaller cars. The two automakers will each acquire a 10% stake in the joint venture, on par with Isuzu Motors and Hino Motors, while Toyota will hold a 60% stake, they said. "With Suzuki and Daihatsu joining the project and working together, we'll be able to expand our circle of cooperation to not only cover commercial vehicles but also mini vehicles," said Toyota President Akio Toyoda. "With this expansion, I believe that we'll be able to take one step closer to a better mobility society," Toyoda said. The move comes as Japanese automakers face growing competition from tech giants and other rivals making electric and driverless cars. Toyota, Isuzu and Hino launched the Commercial Japan Partnership Technologies Corporation in April to bolster their competitive edge in connected, commercial vehicles. Daihatsu's president Soichiro Okudaira said joining the pact and introducing connected, mini-commercial vehicles would allow data sharing, a major benefit for companies to provide better services to customers and improve logistics efficiency. (Reporting by Eimi Yamamitsu; Writing by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Louise Heavens) Related Video: Green Suzuki Toyota Daihatsu Electric Akio Toyoda

How Toyota's 100-year textile history influenced FCV hydrogen fuel cell car

Turns out, Toyota had a surprising ace in the hole when it came to building the new fuel tanks for the FCV hydrogen fuel cell car, which is coming next year. Well before Toyota became the Toyota Motor Company, it was the Toyota Industries Corporation and it made textile looms. This is important because the main structure of the hydrogen tank is wound carbon fiber. When Toyota set out to increase the strength of the tanks to hold hydrogen stored at 10,000 psi (up from 5,000 in the previous tanks), it was able to draw on its 100-year-old history as it designed its car of the future. "A lot of that textile experience came back when we did the tank wrapping." – Justin Ward "We have a lot of experience with textiles," Justin Ward told AutoblogGreen at the 21st World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in Detroit this week, "and a lot of that textile experience came back when we did the tank wrapping." On top of being able to hold the higher-pressure hydrogen, Toyota's first attempt to build its own hydrogen tank was six times faster than the industry standard, so it saved time and money as well as working better. The company will also be able to inspect its own tanks. Ward is the general manager of powertrain system control at the Toyota Technical Center and hydrogen vehicles are something he knows a lot about. The reason for the stronger, 10,000-psi tanks is because the 5,000-psi tanks only offered around 180-200 miles of range, even with four tanks in the early $129,000 FCHV Highlander hydrogen prototypes. The FCV only has two, but they will able to deliver the 300-mile range that customers told Toyota they wanted. Dropping the number of tanks not only obviously reduced the cost for the tanks themselves but also the number of valves and hoses and other components you need. Despite the benefits of higher compression, going much higher doesn't make sense. 10,000 psi is the "natural progression," Ward said, because "you start to bump up against compression inefficiencies." Think of an air compressor. When hydrogen is produced at a wastewater treatment plant or a reforming site, Ward said, is it at around ambient pressure (14 psi). That has to be raised, using compressors, all the way to 10,000 psi. "That takes energy," Ward said, "and every doubling of pressure adds another doubling of energy needed, so it starts to add up pretty fast if you go too high." Component specifications are also fine at 10,00 psi, but more difficult at higher levels.

Foreign automakers pay from $38 to $65 per hour to non-union workers

As leaders for the United Auto Workers gather in Detroit for their Special Convention on Collective Bargaining to work out the negotiating stance for this year's new labor agreements with the Detroit 3 automakers, what they most want to do is figure out how to eliminate the two-tier wage scale. However, the lower Tier 2 wage has allowed the domestic automakers to reduce their labor costs, hire more workers, and compete better with their import competition. As it stands, per-hour labor rates including benefits are $58 at General Motors, $57 at Ford, and $48 at Fiat-Chrysler – a reflection of FCA's much greater number of Tier 2 workers. The Center for Automotive Research released a study of labor rates (including benefits) that put numbers to what the imports pay: Mercedes-Benz pays the most, at an average of $65 per hour, Volkswagen pays the least, at $38 per hour, and BMW is just a hair above that at $39 per hour. Among the Detroit competitors, Honda workers earn an average of $49 per hour, at Toyota it's $48 per hour, Nissan is $42 per hour, and Hyundai-Kia pays $41 per hour. The lower import wages are aided by their greater use of temporary workers compared to the domestics. Automotive News says the ten-dollar gap between those foreign camakers and the domestics turns out to about an extra $250 per car in labor, which adds up quickly when you're pumping out many millions of cars. That $250-per-car number is one that, come negotiating time, the Detroit 3 will want to reduce, as the UAW is trying to raise both Tier 1 and Tier 2 wages. Another wrinkle is that the domestic carmakers are considering the wide adoption of a third wage level lower than Tier 2. Some workers who do minor tasks like assembling parts trays kits and battery packs already make less than Tier 2, but the UAW will be quite wary about cementing yet another wage scale at the bottom of the system while it's trying to fight a bigger battle at the top. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req., BloombergImage Credit: AP Photo/Erik Schelzig Earnings/Financials UAW/Unions BMW Chevrolet Fiat Ford GM Honda Hyundai Kia Mercedes-Benz Nissan Toyota Volkswagen labor wages collective bargaining labor costs