New Toyota Vitz's front-door glass cuts UV by approximately 99%

Toyota announced today that it will begin using - as a world's first - car front-door glass that reduces ultraviolet (UV) penetration by approximately 99%. The new glass will be used in the new "Vitz" scheduled for launch at the end of this year.

Windshields, which use laminated glass, can be given approximately 99% UV-reduction performance by inserting a UV-blocking film between two sheets of glass in the laminating process. Car-door windows, on the other hand, generally use single-piece tempered glass that is often imbued with a UV-absorbing material to achieve approximately 89% UV protection. Getting the UV-reduction performance of door-window glass closer to 100% requires the use of UV absorption technologies. Thus, the interior side of the door-window glass to be used in the new Vitz has been surfaced with a high-performance UV-absorbing film to achieve approximately 99% UV-reduction performance.

Lexus LFA scale model coming from AUTOart

LFA fans will be glad to know that at last, a scale model is coming soon from AUTOart. It is going to be in 1/18 scale and available in four colours: yellow, whitest white, red and mat black.

Pre-orders are available in Japanese online shops and the release date is end of February 2011. I am really tempted ordering one, but I will rather wait for the Kyosho one...

Real-time info of EV chargers in Osaka to be delivered to navi systems

Osaka Prefecture (大阪府) announced that real-time information from the fast chargers will be able to be delivered to EV's navigation system. This system will enable the efficient operation of the 50 Nissan Leafs which are planned to be used as taxis and for car sharing. Among the information to be provided will be the location of the fast chargers, condition of use, condition of state (full or empty) and availability time. Also, reservation of chargers will be possible via the phone. The system has been developed by Unisys.

The charger infrastructure network in Osaka consists at the moment of 17 fast chargers with two 200V chargers. Forty more 200V chargers, where the telecommunication facility will be installed, are scheduled to be set up in the near future.

[Source: Response]

Bridgestone Potenza S001 to be fitted on Lexus LFA

Not really what you would call breaking news, but Lexus will fit Bridgestone Potenza S001 tyres on the LFA. 265/35ZR20 (95Y) tyres will be fitted at the front and 305/30ZR20 (99Y) at the rear.

Daihatsu cuts cost of stop/start system by 70%

Daihatsu has managed to reduced the cost of its stop/start system by 70%. The new system is installed in the new Move (earlier post), called "eco IDLE", and its mass has been reduced as well from about 10kg to 4kg.

"In order to achieve the reduction in cost and mass, the number of parts had to be reduced. The old system, as used as in the Mira, consisted of a battery, starter, dedicated ECU (electronic control unit), hydraulic brake holding system, electric hydraulic pump for its CVT, electric double layer capacitor that prevents the instantaneous drop of voltage at start-up and so forth.

The new one, uses the same battery and starter, but Daihatsu eliminated the electric hydraulic pump, replaced the capacitor with a DC-DC converter integrated with the ECU, embedded the hydraulic brake holding system in the ABS (antilock brake system) in place of a dedicated solenoid valve.


The battery has a long life and can deal with frequent starting and stopping of the engine. The starter has a two-layered brush so that the brush is not easily worn away.

On the other hand, Daihatsu eliminated the electric pump for the CVT by making the engine start up quicker and preventing oil from leaking from the cylinder that bears down on the pulley.

Because the oil pressure for bearing down on the pulley of the CVT is not generated until the engine starts moving, the company made improvements to the method of stopping the engine. Specifically, the engine stops after a certain cylinder is chosen so that it becomes easy to start up next time.

In addition, Daihatsu used a ring and an O-ring on the back of the pulley to seal the oil pressure chamber to prevent oil from leaking and air from mixing in when the engine is not moving. For the idling stop system of the Mira, only one ring is used.

The idling stop system of the Mira uses a sub-battery (electric double layer capacitor) located beneath the driver's seat to prevent the power supply for the audio equipment and navigation system from going off. This time, the company eliminated the sub-battery and equipped the ECU of the idling stop system with a DC-DC converter to be used for auxiliary power supply.

Daihatsu also eliminated a mechanism that increases the brake oil pressure by using a solenoid valve to prevent the Move from moving backward when it is starting up on a slope. To realize the same function, the company employed an antiskid brake system having a pressure boosting function for the ABS. However, because it is not equipped with a yaw rate sensor, etc, it does not have an antiskid braking function.

Among those improvements, the removal of the electric hydraulic pump contributed most to the reduction in cost and mass. The start-up time of the engine is 0.4 seconds, which is about 0.1 second faster than that of the Mira."

[Source: Tech-On!]

New Suzuki MR Wagon to achieve fuel efficiency of 26.5 km/L

The new Suzuki MR Wagon will not continue the rounded design of the current model, but it will adopt a box-shaped exterior design instead and it is expected to be launched on 20 January.

Suzuki has revealed that it will have a fuel efficiency of 26.5 km/L under the 10-15 test cycle (Daihatsu's new Move achieves 27.0 km/L and Toyota's new Vitz 26.5 km/L), which will come equipped with a CVT gearbox and a stop/start system. 

[Source: Response]

Infiniti EX (EUDM) to get blind spot warning system

Infiniti's sporting coupe crossover, the EX (aka Nissan Skyline Crossover), is getting a new Blind Spot Warning (BSW) system for 2011. This safety feature, which uses both audible and visual signals to alert the driver for an adjacent vehicle in the blind spot area, is a very helpful safety system and it will be fitted as standard to the top-selling EX GT Premium versions of both V6 petrol and V6 diesel models.

Well, it is not a new technology since Volvo offers it the last few years, but having owned a Volvo with BLIS (this is how Volvo calls it), I have to admit that it's an impressive safety feature and extremely useful for motorcycles approaching the car.

In the case of the EX, each time a vehicle enters the blind spot area, amber lights at the base of the door mirrors start to blink. If the driver activates the indicator, showing an intention to change lanes, the lights are supplemented by a warning sound – further indication of a potentially dangerous situation.

Blind Spot Warning is not the only innovative technology, as EX is offered with other intelligent systems such as Intelligent Cruise Control, Intelligent Brake Assist, Forward Collision Warning and Lane Departure Prevention.

Hamster VTEC Miss-Shift

Honda starts lease sales of EV scooter in Japan

Honda announced today that it will start lease sales of the EV-neo electric scooter on December 24. According to Honda's plans, 100 EV-neo scooters will be delivered between December 2010 and March 2011 to cooperating businesses in the monitoring program for collecting riding data and other useful information and to start lease sales of the EV-neo to general businesses and individual business owners in April 2011. The annual target lease sales in Japan is 1,000 units and the base price (with quick charger) is 574,350 ¥.

The EV-neo uses the new SCiB lithium-ion battery from Toshiba and can achieve 34 km vehicle range per charge. An optional audible pedestrian alert system to warn pedestrians of an approaching vehicle when riding at 28 km/h or lower will be available.

Next-gen Honda Fit Hybrid coming in 2013 with bigger engine

The next-gen Fit (aka Jazz) Hybrid is expected to be launched in September 2013 and the main targets are improved profitability and environmental performance. Development of compact cars for emerging markets will help automakers in the development of next-gen small cars in order to reduce costs.

The new Fit Hybrid will get a new engine with a displacement of 1.5 L, from the 1.3 L of the current one, which will operate using the Atkinson cycle. The new engine is expected to power also the normal model as well. The assist of the IMA system will be increased from 10 kW to 24 kW.

[Source: Mag-X via CarSensor]

2011 USDM Honda Odyssey named best redesigned vehicle

Well, I wasn't aware that such a title exists, but apparently it does. To be honest, the most difficult thing is to replace an already successful model and it seems that Honda has managed to do it with the new Odyssey. So, Kelly Blue Book has named the 2011 Honda Odyssey its Best Redesigned Vehicle for 2011.

“The 2011 Honda Odyssey improves on its predecessor in every way imaginable, offering a better-looking, more contemporary exterior design, a sumptuous interior stuffed with innovative features, and class-leading fuel economy,” said Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com.  ”Its safety, refinement, resale value and trouble-free nature are combined with a surprising level of fun-to-drive, so it is not difficult to see why Honda refers to the 2011 Odyssey as the ‘ultimate in family transportation.’”

Although the USDM version looks good, I would rather have the JDM one pictured below.

[Source: egmCarTech]

Airbags may not work in 1 out of 100 cars?!

According to a report published by Response, an investigation involving 100,000 vehicles (Lotus was also involved in the investigation) showed that fault codes related to SRS were logged in 1.29% of the vehicles and ABS faults in 5.72% of them. This means that in approximately 1 out of 100 cars the airbags may not work properly in the case of an accident!

Proper mobile version of "Japanese Car Design Corner / 日本自動車設計角" blog now available

Blogger has finally released the highly anticipated mobile version today and although it's still beta, you can now visit the mobile version of my blog via your mobile phone using the same address, which you can also obtain by scanning the updated QR code on the left sidebar. If you want to preview the mobile version on your computer, just visit the following address:

http://jp-cardesigncorner.blogspot.com/?m=1
 

Ariel Atom tuned by Mugen is coming!!!

Ariel's super fast Atom is well known, but now it's coming tuned by Mugen (無限)!!! The Mugen version, which is coming out to celebrate the model's 10th anniversary, is going to be powered by a Mugen-tuned Honda K20Z Type R engine, an engine that has been used in regular Atoms since 2007. Power will be increased by 25 hp and total output will be 270 hp!

Only 10 cars will be built, each featuring a special livery and a numbered plate signed by the Mugen and Ariel technicians responsible for its build. The Ariel Atom Mugen will be shown at the Autosport show in January, when full prices and final spec will be announced.

[Source: Autocar]

Yet another rendering of Subaru's FT-86 version (216A)

This is another rendering I came across and although it doesn't seem like a good one, I just thought that it would be nice to share it. Auto Express published recently a rendering (earlier post) and you can check out also my detailed post which includes a large number of magazine scans and a lot of info. If you are not familiar with the code "086A", it's the internal code of the Scoobi version for the Japanese market.

Nissan Leaf’s dynamic online digital brochure

Check out the Leaf's dynamic online digital brochure! It describes every innovation that makes up this historic car.

Last orders: Honda Civic Type R (FN2)

A very nicely written article. Check it out!

Last orders: Honda Civic Type R « PetrolBlog
 

Honda considers F1 come back!

OK, now that's a paradox. Honda quit F1 at the end of 2008 season having already developed a car capable of winning the title in 2009. The financial meltdown was blamed and Honda wanted to focus on green cars instead. Oh, the NSX development under way at those days was also canceled, but we got the Insight instead... a very promising model that proved to be simply disappointing.

Now though, the F1 rules will change in 2013 and it seems that 1.6 L turbocharged engines will be used. Renault's managing director Jean-François Caubet said that companies will have to start from scratch with the upcoming new rules and he stated that a third manufacturer will join F1 in 2013. He said that a likely return of BMW is too premature and VW still hesitates. Caubet said that the third company will be a Japanese one and Honda is seriously considering a come back...

Nissan Leaf's EV-IT demo (Japanese)

Toyota at 2011 Tokyo Auto Salon

The 2011 Tokyo Auto Salon is going to take place in January, opening on January 14, and we have the first info on what Toyota will display.

Toyota will display the Auris GT Concept (an Auris with TRD parts), as well as MODELLISTA options for the FJ Cruiser and the Ractis (aka Verso-S). Subaru will also exhibit an STi version of its own version of the latter one, the Trezia.

Additionally, the Toyota Sports EV-Twin will be there, an FR sports concept developed in-house voluntary by TES (Toyota Engineering Society).

The Gazoo Racing Lexus LFA that won its class in the 2010 Nurburgring 24 hours race will be displayed, as well as TOM'S version of LS460.

[Source: Response]

Nissan Teana heading to UAE?

Nissan's Teana (ティアナ) is a large sedan available in Japan  (basis of Mitsuoka's Galue) and some South Asian markets, e.g. Thailand and Malaysia, and a number of them have been spotted in UAE (photo at the top) being transported to Nissan's Jebel Ali HQ.

The specific cars are powered by a 2.0 L engine, producing 136 hp and coupled to a CVT gearbox. Now, it remains unknown whether Nissan plans to sell Teana in UAE or they are just conducting hot weather testing.

[Source: Car Middle East]