Toyota Says It Will Act Soon On Priuses
Toyota said yesterday that it will soon announce plans to deal with braking problems in its prized Prius hybrid amid reports it has decided to issue a recall for the vehicle in Japan, a possible new embarrassment for the world’s biggest automaker.
Toyota Motor Corp. has had to recall more than 7 million other cars in the United States, Europe, and China over a sticky accelerator and floor mats that can get caught in the gas pedal. Those problems and criticism of Toyota’s response to them have sullied the stellar reputation for quality long held by one of Japan’s corporate icons.
Separately, the company has told dealers in the United States it is preparing to repair the brakes on thousands of Prius vehicles there, according to an e-mail sent by a company executive. It was unclear whether Toyota planned a formal US recall.
“We will make an announcement soon on the action we plan to take,’’ spokeswoman Ririko Takeuchi said, commenting on media reports yesterday that the company had decided to issue a Japan recall. Takeuchi did not confirm those reports.
The Prius is the world’s top-selling gas-electric hybrid, and its fuel efficiency has drawn intense interest amid concerns about global warming and dependence on fossil fuels.
Toyota decided Saturday on a recall in Japan covering its latest Prius model and has notified domestic dealers, according to Japan’s largest newspaper, the Yomiuri, which did not name sources. It said Toyota would announce the move early in the coming week after consulting with the Japanese government. Japan’s Kyodo News agency and TV Asahi carried similar reports. Kyodo said Toyota has started notifying dealers, and that at least 170,000 vehicles in Japan would be subject to recall.
Phone calls to the section at Japan’s transport ministry dealing with recalls went unanswered yesterday. None of about 10 Toyota dealers in Tokyo and the western Japanese city of Osaka had received any notification. Three dealers in the United States said the same thing on yesterday.
Prius drivers in Japan and the United States have complained of a short delay before the antilock brakes kick in – a flaw Toyota says can be fixed with a software programming change. The brakes will work if the driver keeps pushing the pedal.
The brake problem affects about 270,000 Priuses that were sold in the United States and Japan starting in May. The company says it has fixed vehicles that went on sale since last month.
Bob Carter, a Toyota group vice president, sent an e-mail message Friday night to US dealers, saying the automaker is working on a Prius repair plan and will disclose details early this week. At least 100 US drivers of Prius cars have complained to the government that their brakes seemed to fail momentarily when they were driving on bumpy roads. The government says the problem is suspected in four crashes and two minor injuries.
Public awareness of the problem “has prompted considerable customer concern, speculation, and media attention due to the significance of the Prius image,’’ Carter said in the e-mail. “We want to assure our dealers that we are moving rapidly to provide a solution for your existing customers.’’
Toyota yesterday began airing spots on US television that say the company is “working around the clock’’ to build the highest-quality vehicles and to restore faith in its vehicles.
“In recent days, our company hasn’t been living up to the standards that you’ve come to expect from us,’’ an unidentified announcer said in a voiceover.
Carter wrote that the ads tell viewers about Toyota’s 50-plus years of building safe, reliable vehicles in the United States.
Toyota’s response to the safety issues has drawn the attention of US politicians.
Toyota Motor North America’s chairman, Yoshi Inaba, will appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday.
A key committee member has asked that transportation officials who served under President George W. Bush also appear. By Kelly Olsen, The Boston Globe
House Prices Set For Double-Digit Increase, Nationwide Predicts
House prices are on course for double-digit growth on an annual basis next month for the first time in three years, Britain’s biggest building society said.
The forecast by Nationwide came as the lender reported a higher than expected 1.2 per cent average price increase in January, taking the rise to 8.6 per cent since the same month last year. Reports due out on Monday are expected to reinforce the view that prices have strengthened and to show that economists have revised their forecasts upwards for this year, based on signs of better mortgage lending.
Martin Gahbauer, chief economist for Nationwide, said: “Unless there is a fall in property values in February, annual house price inflation is likely to move into double-digit territory next month.”
An annual double-digit rise next month would be the first for almost three years — the last time that Britain had year-on-year house price growth above 10 per cent was in May 2007. The average house price is now £163,481, up from a low of £147,746 in February last year but still some way off the October 2007 peak of £186,044, according to Nationwide.
Separate data from the Land Registry, based on all housing transactions in England and Wales and therefore lagging behind Nationwide’s index, which is based on its mortgage lending, showed that in December annual house prices rose for the first time since May 2008. Prices rose by 0.1 per cent over the month — the eighth consecutive monthly increase, according to the official measure. The Land Registry found big regional variations in growth. London had the highest annual change, with a 6.1 per cent rise over 2009, while Wales had the biggest fall, at 2.5 per cent.
Proof of a return to confidence in the capital came yesterday in the form of a return to mega-mansion development. Marcus Cooper, the North London developer, announced that it had gained planning consent for a £100 million home facing Regent’s Park, Central London. Camden council gave consent to build the 50,000 sq ft property, which will have ten bedrooms, vast entertaining spaces, two additional staff houses, a cinema, a gym, a pool, office facilities and a car park.
Marcus Cooper is noted for good timing. It made millions of pounds two years ago from redevelopment of the 40,000 sq ft Witanhurst House in Highgate — London’s second-biggest house after Buckingham Palace — which it bought for £32 million in 2007 and sold in July 2008 for more than £50 million, shortly before the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the property market crash.
The new project is an example of a trend among London property professionals in response to rising prices and soaring demand from foreign investors: the conversion back into residences of grand period homes turned into offices over the past 100 years. Some of the biggest developers in London, including Grosvenor, which owns much of Mayfair, and Covent Garden-based Shaftesbury, have been turning centrally located buildings back into dwellings.
Nationwide said yesterday that the housing market would remain relatively independent of other economic measures, such as unemployment and negative wage growth, but would be more dependent on whether the Bank of England raises interest rates this year.
Mr Gahbauer said: “With negative real earnings growth, the future path of interest rates becomes even more critical for the housing market, particularly with a growing proportion of the mortgage stock now on variable rate deals. The consensus view is that interest rates will remain unchanged until the final quarter of 2010. Inflation trends in 2009, however, are starting to call into question the validity of this view.”
Howard Archer, of IHS Global Insight, said: “A modest relapse in house prices is likely at some point in 2010 and they may well be essentially flat over the year as a whole.” By Rebecca O’Connor, Francesca Steele – The Times
Egypt To Build Biggest Car Tyre Factory In Middle East
Egypt is planning to build the biggest car tyre factory in the Middle East at a cost of 600 million Egyptian pounds ($109 million), the state news agency MENA quoted an industry executive as saying on Saturday.
Egypt has tried to spur industrial exports as a way of buoying economic growth and providing jobs for its 77 million people, but the global financial crisis and competition from Asian manufacturers have curbed some of its efforts.
“Domestic tyre exports face big problems due to the entrance of Chinese producers in African markets, particularly the COMESA nations, at very low prices,” the agency quoted Taher Salama, head of the state-owned Transport and Engineering Company (Trenco), as saying.
COMESA is the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.
The new factory will be able to produce half a million tyres annually, the report said. It will take two years to build and will be located in El-Amerya, west of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.
Egyptian, Arab and foreign investors will take part in the factory’s financing, the report said without naming specific investors. Trenco currently exports to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states and plans to export to Sudan, it added. DNA India
Honda Ranked Most Gas Friendly Automaker In U.S.
The Environmental Protection Agency has ranked the nine automakers that sell full lineups in the U.S. according to fuel-efficiency.
Honda averaging 23.6 miles per gallon across its 2009 vehicles, closely trailed by Hyundai (23.4 mpg) and Toyota (23.2 mpg). The 2009 average across all vehicles sold is 21.1 mpg.
For the model year that’s just started, Honda launched the 2010 Honda Insight dedicated hybrid in February, which will be followed by the 2011 Honda CR-Z hybrid two-seat sports coupe and then by a future Honda Fit Hybrid as well.
Honda had a fleetwide 23.6 mpg fuel economy average in the 2009 model year. Hyundai had 23.4 mpg. Toyota Motor Corp., which was tied for first in 2007, slipped to third with 23.2 mpg.
Volkswagen AG was fourth at 22.3 mpg; while Nissan Motor Co. and BMW AG were tied for fifth at 21.6 mpg.
Detroit’s Big Three finished in the last three spots. Ford Motor Co. was in seventh with a 20.5 mpg; General Motors Co. was in eighth at 19.9 mpg; and Chrysler was last at 18.7 mpg. By José Moreno, Newsday
Asia’s Luxury Car Market ‘Picking Up’: Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce said Friday the market for its super-luxury cars was picking up dramatically across Asia as the effects of the global financial crisis recede.
“We’re fast coming out of the financial crisis and China and India look like they will lead the way out in 2010 on a feel-good factor,” Rolls-Royce Asia-Pacific regional chief Colin Kelly said in New Delhi.
“Japan is also expected to have a very good year in 2010. Australia is also looking extremely positive.”
His comments came a day after the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said in its latest forecast that emerging market economies China and India were poised to accelerate and Japan’s recession had “bottomed out”.
Kelly was speaking during the unveiling in India of Rolls-Royce’s Ghost model, the automaker’s new lower-cost saloon car, which is due to hit the roads in the country in the second quarter of next year.
The Britain-based carmaker had a bumper year in 2008, when it sold a record 2,012 of its Phantom range worldwide and 200 across Asia, but has suffered this year from the global slump.
Kelly said the company initially expected Asian sales to be down 35 percent this year but would now “do better than we thought” as sales have been picking up in the past few months.
Next year sales would accelerate to “over 400″ cars in the region, he forecast. “We’re going from strength to strength in Asia.”
Sales globally were expected to increase to 2,500 in 2010, up sharply from the current year, when they “will be under 1,000,” said Kelly.
In Asia, China will contribute half of the unit sales next year while India, which is becoming an increasingly key market, will account for 10 to 12 percent, he said.
Rolls-Royce forecasts the Ghost will produce a big leap in sales in India, saying initial interest has been keen. The Ghost, the first model in a new Rolls-Royce series, was unveiled at the Frankfurt auto show last September.
Its on-the-road price in India will be 25 million rupees (535,000 dollars) compared to 35 million rupees for the Phantom.
Kelly said the company expected to sell 50 to 60 Ghosts and up to 15 Phantoms in India in 2010 compared with around 15 Phantoms for this year.
Rolls-Royce, once the car of choice of the maharajas during British colonial rule, re-entered India in 2005 after a break of half a century.
The main buyers in India are self-made business people.
“We used to sell to a lot of maharajas. Now we sell to commercial maharajas,” said Hal Serudin, spokesman for Rolls-Royce Asia Pacific.
The company’s upbeat outlook for India came after US magazine Forbes reported the number of billionaires in the country had almost doubled in the last 12 months to 52, mainly thanks to a surge in stock markets. Yahoo Daily News