Mazda Motor Corp. (TYO:7261) has announced that it will discontinue its offering of full hybrid vehicles (HVs) as part of the company’s next-generation product rollout for 2019. Hybrid technology is currently used in Mazda’s Axela, a domestic sedan first launched in 2013. However, sales of the Axela hybrid have not grown as expected, and the...
HV
Denso to Produce Parts for Hybrid and Autonomous Cars at US Factory
Denso Corp. (TYO:6902) has announced that it will invest about 100 billion yen ($889.7 million) in its production base located in the U.S. state of Tennessee by 2020. The base will produce sensor components for autonomous driving and inverters for hybrid vehicles (HVs), a first for the company in terms of overseas operations. As part...
Toyota to Expand Hybrid Transaxle Production to US
Toyota Motor Corp. (TYO:7203) announced on Sept. 26 that the company will bring its hybrid transaxle production to the U.S. for the first time in 2020. Currently supplied from Japan, the unit is comprised of a motor, generator and power split device and is a central part in hybrid vehicles (HVs). The U.S. production will...
Bosch Targets 2019 for Mass Production of New Powertrain Unit
German-based Robert Bosch GmbH recently announced the development of its new e-axle powertrain, which combines motor, inverter and transmission components into one unit. The e-axle is scheduled to go into mass production in or around 2019. Compared to when these components are separate, the new powertrain improves energy efficiency while reducing weight and cost. The...
Isuzu to Develop Diesel Hybrid Vehicles for Thai Market
Isuzu Motors Ltd. (TYO:7202) has announced that it will develop a diesel hybrid system for use in pickup trucks and other light commercial vehicles (LCVs). The company aims to bring the new technology to Thailand in the early 2020s, with India and other countries to potentially follow at a later date. The move comes as...
Aisin Seiki President Fears EVs Could Wipe out Over Half of Annual Sales
The spread of electric vehicles (EVs) could threaten business for engines and transmissions, says Aisin Seiki Co. Ltd. (TYO:7259) President Yasumori Ihara. Speaking at an Aug. 24 press conference in Kariya, Aichi Prefecture, Ihara said that the disappearance of these markets would see the company stand to lose 2 trillion yen ($18.33 billion) of its...
Volvo to Go Electric on All Car Models Starting in 2019
Swedish automaker Volvo Car Corp. recently announced that, starting in 2019, the company will no longer launch gas-only vehicles. The company’s entire lineup will be comprised of electric vehicles (EVs), plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHVs) and hybrid vehicles (HVs). No new exclusively internal-combustion vehicles with gasoline or diesel engines will be released. At the present time,...
Maxell Creates New Possibilities With Internal Observation of Lithium-Ion Batteries in Action
Hitachi Maxell Ltd., commonly known as Maxell, recently announced that it has broken new ground in the observation of lithium-ion batteries (LiBs). The company has succeeded in simultaneously measuring lithium concentration distribution in the positive and negative electrodes of charging and discharging electrolytic solution LiBs in a single field of view in real time. This...
Panasonic Opens New Automotive LiB Plant in China
Panasonic Corp. (TYO:6752) announced on April 27 that its Chinese JV Panasonic Automotive Energy Dalian Co. Ltd. has completed construction of a new automotive lithium-ion battery (LiB) plant in Dalian, Liaoning Province. The announcement was coupled with an opening ceremony on the day. The plant is Panasonic’s first automotive battery cell production base in China....
Mitsubishi Electric Develops World’s Smallest SiC Inverter for Hybrid Cars
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (TYO:6503) recently announced that it has developed an ultra-compact silicon carbide (SiC) inverter for hybrid vehicles (HVs). The world’s smallest of its type at just 5 liters, the SiC is slated to be developed for mass production, with Mitsubishi Electric aiming for commercialization around 2021. Demand is growing for HVs and electric...
Renesas Develops Dedicated Motor Control Technology to Boost EV Cruising Range
Renesas Electronics Corp. (TYO:6723) announced that it has developed dedicated motor control technology for automotive microcontrollers to boost the energy efficiency of electric vehicles (EVs). This newly developed technology enables autonomous operation by creating a dedicated circuit for the static processing that motor control requires. These developments have allowed field-oriented control operations – which are...
Toyota’s Global Sales of Hybrids Hits Ten Million
Toyota Motor Corp. (TYO:7203) announced on Feb. 14 that its total sales of hybrid vehicles (HVs) through the end of January had reached 10 million units. The achievement comes nineteen-and-a-half years after Toyota’s first HV, the Coaster Hybrid EV, was released in Japan in August 1997. Broken down by region, the sales numbers are as...
Toyota to Launch First Hybrid Model of Vitz
Toyota Motor Corp. (TYO:7203) announced on Jan. 12 that, together with minor changes to the Vitz compact-class car, the company will for the first time be marketing it as a hybrid vehicle (HV). The automaker has improved the vehicle by including the same 1.5 liter engine as the Toyota Aqua. Its fuel consumption based on...
