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Toyota, Mazda drop Takata as Mitsubishi, Subaru weigh options

It's not a very good time to be Takata right now. Fresh on the heels of longtime partner Honda ditching them, Toyota and Mazda have both come out and said they will not use the company's airbag inflators if they continue to rely on ammonium nitrate. Bloomberg reports that Subaru and Mitsubishi are also contemplating a divorce. "The inflator using ammonium nitrate produced by Takata will not be adopted by Toyota," President Akio Toyoda said during a briefing today. "What's most important above anything else is the safety and peace of mind of customers." Mazda echoed that position, simply saying it "will not use Takata airbag inflators which contain ammonium nitrate in our new cars." When you lose three huge OEM accounts in as many days, it's certainly going to have a deleterious effect on your fortunes. In Takata's case, that's meant a staggering 39-percent drop in their share price over the last three days. Yesterday alone, the company saw a 6.2-percent fall, Bloomberg reports. As the business publication reports, though, Takata isn't going down without a fight. The company is "considering some plans to survive," including a fundraising plan that will see it potentially offer up additional shares for sale. Still, at least one analyst doesn't see whatever company survives staying involved in the airbag inflator business. "I really don't see how they're going to be able to survive as an inflator manufacturer," Valient Market Research founder Scott Upham told Bloomberg. "When your major clients publicly come out and say that they're not going to use your products anymore, it makes this very difficult to sustain your business." News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Carlos Osorio / AP Honda Mazda Mitsubishi Subaru Toyota Safety supplier

Lexus: No plans for LFA replacement anytime soon

Supercars are fantastic in terms of their raw performance, sound and ability to inspire interest in an automaker. They aren't so good at actually making money, even for giant, global automakers like Toyota. And if you are holding out hope that Lexus might be fibbing about there being no plans for an LFA successor, we have some bad news. "I think you will see us do some incredible things in the future, but probably not a $375,000 supercar anytime soon," Lexus Executive Vice President Mark Templin told Automotive News. The issue comes down to the LFA's cost to develop and massive price. Lexus built just 500 of the V10 supercars from 2010 through 2012. Templin said that the plan was originally for a much more modest vehicle with a steel body. However, that intention changed to plans for an aluminum exterior and eventually evolved further to carbon fiber during the course of its engineering. Templin is clear that Lexus isn't giving up on more accessible performance with its F sub-brand models, but more supercars aren't coming, at least not anytime soon. He previously suggested that the LFA was a generational model with a 30-year wait for the next one. These days, the workshop that built the LFA has been converted for a much less powerful but perhaps more important vehicle. Toyota now uses it to build the Mirai with the company's hydrogen fuel cell powertrain. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2012 Lexus LFA: Review View 30 Photos News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Copyright 2015 Drew Phillips / AOL Plants/Manufacturing Lexus Toyota Coupe Performance Supercars supercar lexus lfa

Toyota reports huge quarterly profit increase, raises forecast for the year

Toyota isn't just the world's largest automaker - so far its the biggest winner for quarterly profits. With an enormous $5.5 billion take during Q2, Toyota took advantage of the weak Japanese yen and strong US demand to record a 94-percent improvement in profit over the same period from last year. So far, Toyota brought in larger profits than Ford and General Motors combined.
Toyota is showing no signs of slowing down either, as it has bumped up its forecast for full-year global production, going from 9.94 million to 10.12 million vehicles, on the back of a 13-percent drop in the buying power of the Japanese yen versus the US dollar. That strong exchange rate is largely responsible for Toyota's big jump in profits, although it also managed to shift 1.3 million vehicles in the US market this year. Strong Camry sales have also helped. But while Toyota is raking in the cash, it actually saw a small drop in market share, down 0.1 percent to 14.3 percent of the US market.
As is the case with most automakers, Toyota seems flummoxed by Europe, where it recorded less than one percent of its revenue. Still, as Automotive News points out, Toyota only maintains a 4.5-percent market share in Europe and is far less dependent on the continent than other manufacturers. Toyota also struggled at home, much like Honda. With 525,777 units sold, JDM sales were down almost 51,000 units, although Toyota still saw its operating profit jump from $3.5 billion to $4.6 billion.