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TOKYO — Japan may ban sales of new gasoline-engine cars by the mid-2030s in favor of hybrid or electric vehicles, public broadcaster NHK reported on Thursday, aligning it with other countries and regions that are imposing curbs on fossil fuel vehicles.

The move would follow Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's pledge in October for Japan to slash carbon emissions to zero on a net basis by 2050 and make the country the second G7 nation in a little over two weeks to set a deadline for phasing out gasoline vehicles.

Mazda introduced the 2021 CX-30 2.5 Turbo earlier this year and now the company has confirmed it will cost a pretty penny.

Nissan has set up a new regional business unit for Africa, in line with its Nissan Next global strategy plan. The carmaker will look to enhance its focus on the customer while expanding its manufacturing capabilities across the continent.

Lexus has launched a new version of the UX 250h in the United Kingdom, dubbed the Premium Sport Edition.

The Nissan Kicks is getting a refresh for the 2021 model year. Nissan launched the Kicks for 2018, which means it's time for the mid-cycle update. As a little preview to the full reveal on December 8, Nissan has given us a quick teaser video.

Nissan provided zero information beyond the video. The whole front end is shrouded in darkness, preventing us from seeing much of anything in detail. At the very least, the headlights look changed versus the current model. They look more squared-off versus the bubbly and fun lights on the current Kicks. The grille looks to be a bit wider than before, but it's keeping the same general shape as the outgoing Kicks' grille.

Our long-term 2019 Subaru Forester Touring's interior is one area we wanted to really hone in on over a number of months with it. Though Subaru's interior functionality and space have long been key reasons people choose the brand, interior design and quality have been reasons they've looked elsewhere. A compromise needed to be made.

Subaru is trying to lift itself out of this rut with the higher trims of its latest models. The upmarket interiors of the Outback and Legacy are swathed in decent-feeling leather (or leather-substitute), contrast stitching, attractive trim and piano black accents. However, Subaru's best seller, the Forester, is a mixed bag of new, premium Subaru and old, sensible-shoes Subaru.

The Mazda Heroes program is finally announcing its winners. If you recall our original story back in October this year, Mazda said it was giving away 50 MX-5 Miata 100th Anniversary Special Edition models. Each car is destined for individuals who "tirelessly dedicated themselves to their communities throughout 2020" through "selfless acts, creative thinking and contributions to community." The battle against Covid-19 has been long, and it's not over, but Mazda is trying to bring a little convertible happiness into an otherwise bleak year.

One of the winners, Jason Erdreich, is featured in the video at the top of this post. He used his skills as a shop teacher and access to 3-D printers to print thousands of pieces of PPE for medical workers who were in dire need of it. He also appears to own an NA Miata, so he's no stranger to Mazda's roadster.

Kawasaki hinted its future range of motorcycles will include a hybrid model. It's busily developing one of the industry's first gasoline-electric two-wheelers, and it released a video to explain how the technology works.

Pay no attention to the sci-fi three-wheeler leaning into a turn at the beginning of the film; the hybrid bike won't look anything like it, for better or worse. We haven't seen its full design yet, but the firm explained it's being developed to switch among gasoline, electric and hybrid power. It relies on an armada of sensors to identify the type of road it's traveling on and adjust its powertrain accordingly. For example, the software charges the battery pack while the bike is traveling on the highway, shuts off the gasoline engine when it rides through a city core, and leverages both power sources on a twisty road. Hybrid cars have been doing this for years.

It's usually Toyota compact pickups that first spring to mind when talking longevity or off-road ability, but Nissan's compact trucks have some credibility in those areas as well, as demonstrated by this 1988 Nissan Hardbody Desert Runner pickup. Up for offer right now on the auction site Cars & Bids, this Hardbody 4x4 also sports an extroverted red-and-blue graphics package that makes this Nissan pickup guaranteed to turn heads.

We will admit to having totally forgotten about this original Desert Runner — or, more accurately, having never been aware of it. (The nameplate was resurrected for and an off-road-themed 4x2 Frontier offered from 2002 to 2004 and again from 2013 to 2019.) This 1988 model reportedly was a one-year-only special edition that was built to commemorate Nissan's off-road racing effort, which included running in the Baja 1000, the Gold Coast 300, and the Mint 400. The standard Nissan 3.0-liter V6 is backed up by a five-speed manual gearbox and four-wheel drive with a two-speed transfer case. The package includes 31-inch tires on chunky triangle-styled wheels, a bed-mounted spare tire, a front push bar with driving lights, a front skid plate, tubular step bars, a roll bar with more driving lights, and a tailgate net. It's believed 1,000 were made.

A couple in Minnesota just traded in their 414,000-mile 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage, which is notable for any car, topping many of the Junkyard Gems we've featured. We were also impressed because that's a lot of miles in a car that we weren't especially fond of. But the couple that owned it, Jerry and Janice Huot, clearly liked it. Dubbed the "Purple Won" in a nod to Prince, the subcompact endured six upper Midwest winters as an all-purpose utility and delivery vehicle.

"I always loved the comments at gas stations and grocery stores and waves from people as I'd drive by," Jerry said. "Kids would always stop and point. Everybody seemed to love that car; it would make everyone smile whenever they saw it."

Vintage trucks and SUVs, as well as their follow-ups, are in hot demand right now, and crossovers rule the world's sales charts. So few will be surprised to learn that Mitsuoka's quirky Buddy is sold out until 2023. Unveiled in November 2020, it blends styling cues reminiscent of 40-year old Chevrolet models with the efficiency and reliability expected from a new Toyota.

It's not entirely popularity that led to the Buddy selling out. Mitsuoka has never dabbled in volume, and the Buddy is no exception. It will only build 50 units of the Buddy in 2021, according to Motor1, and it will manufacture 150 more in 2022. There's no word yet on how many it will make in 2023. These numbers would be a rounding error if we were talking about the standard RAV4 (about 448,000 units were sold in America alone in 2019), but the Buddy is much more than a Toyota crossover with extra bling.

Acura will unveil the 2022 MDX in production form next Tuesday, Dec. 8, promising it will be "the most premium, performance-focused and technologically advanced SUV in Acura history." Acura will host the debut on its web site at 11:30 a.m. EST. 

If you thought we already saw the 2022 Acura MDX, it's because we did. Acura showed the TLX-inspired design back in October with a "prototype." Like parent company Honda, Acura tends to show "prototypes" that are dead-ringers for their production variants, and this appears to be no different.

In our review of the Mazda CX-30, we said that this crossover is so gifted dynamically, it was practically begging for more power. Mazda answered by adding a new turbo engine for 2021, and now we know how much the extra grunt is going to cost. Mazda has released pricing for the more potent CX-30, and the Turbo model opens at $31,000 (including the $1,100 destination charge), putting it above even the top-trim base-engine version.

The turbocharged 2.5-liter engine makes 227 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque on regular gas, or 250 horses and 320 lb-ft with 93-octane (against 186 hp and 186 lb-ft for the standard 2.5-liter). Besides the extra output, the CX30 2.5 Turbo also comes standard with all-wheel drive, which is $1,400 extra on the regular CX-30.

If a new report is to be believed, Honda may be planning a successor to the S2000 roadster. The original Honda S2000 was created to mark Honda Motor's 50th anniversary. The new car would be released in 2024, a quarter-century after the original's 1999 Japanese debut and coinciding with Honda's 75th birthday.

As reported by Forbes, who merely cites "a source close to Honda," the company's marketing team is "seriously considering" an all-new iteration of the S2000. Veteran Japanese auto industry reporter Peter Lyon says that 20th Anniversary Concept of the old S2000, which you may recall was shown at January's Tokyo Auto Salon, was intended to keep enthusiasm going for an upcoming model.