Displaying Items By Tag: 2021

A number of companies are embracing electric vehicles and it appears Alpine could jump on the bandwagon.

Toyota confirmed the reveal of a brand-new electric SUV model which will be the first to be based on a new EV-specific platform co-developed with Subaru.

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.

NHK has learned that Japan's Defense Ministry will mainly look into using ships in its study of offshore alternatives to the Aegis Ashore missile defense system.

The land-based Aegis Ashore is designed to use radar and interceptor missiles to stop ballistic missiles. Japan planned to deploy it in response to a surge in North Korean ballistic missile tests.

Japan's Defense Ministry says it is considering sea-based alternatives to the Aegis Ashore missile defense system. Earlier this year, the ministry abandoned a plan to deploy the land-based system at two locations.

Defense Minister Kishi Nobuo disclosed the sea-based options at a meeting of ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers on Thursday.

The outlet Tire Meets Road spotted a leaked document from Toyota on Reddit, sent to the automaker's dealers and general managers in the Southwest region. According to the memo from Toyota's western comms manager, "The Yaris sedan and Yaris Hatchback will not be available for model year 2021. Model year 2020 will be the last year for Yaris. June 2020 will be the last month of production for the Yaris sedan and Yaris Hatchback for the US." Reddit deleted the document, but when AutoWise reached out to Toyota, the same comms manager confirmed the information to the site. And just for good measure, when CarBuzz reached out to Toyota, the response was, "The Yaris sedan and Yaris Hatchback will not be available for model year 2021. Model year 2020 will be the last year for Yaris in the U.S."

So ends a 15-year run in the U.S. of what has, at times, been one of America's spunkiest hatchbacks. In our review of the 2019 Mazda2-based sedan, we called it slow but "pretty entertaining to drive," one of the "better-looking cars in this diminutive class," and were surprised "at how grown up it feels." Such accolades haven't been enough to convince the buying public; since 2008, when shoppers took home 102,328 Yaris models, the Yaris has posted steep declines in all but three years. A burst of sales in 2017, after Toyota absorbed Scion and turned the Mazda2-based Scion iA into the Yaris iA, fell back into substantial declines in 2018 and 2019. Last year, the Yaris hatch and sedan sold a combined 21,916 units. The Honda Fit did 35,414 sales, the Hyundai Accent 25,628. 

Japan's government plans to hold a National Security Council meeting this week and withdraw the plan to deploy a land-based missile defense system called Aegis Ashore.

The government announced the suspension of the deployment plan last week.

Tokyo's local governments near the US Yokota Air Base are requesting that the US military's Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft be grounded until safety measures are taken.

Japan's Defense Ministry officials on Wednesday informed the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and local municipalities near the US base that part of an Osprey went missing after a flight on Tuesday.

Update: Toyota told CarScoops that they will present the new B-SUV on April 23. “Indeed we will unveil this vehicle on 23rd April, in a digital way”, said a spokesperson.

Toyota will be expanding its small car portfolio with the addition of two models. One of them will be the Yaris Cross (name unconfirmed) and the other will be the Yaris-based small SUV.

During last year's World Final of the FIA World Tour in Gran Turismo Sport in Monaco, Mazda announced it would become an official video game partner this year, the automaker's centenary. The Japanese automaker then teased a sketch of its RX-Vision GT3 Concept, a GT3-class racer based on RX-Vision Concept shown at 2015 Tokyo Motor Show, penned by global design boss Ikuo Maeda and headed for Gran Turismo Sport this year. Polyphony Digital has finished modeling the car and just debuted it on the game's official site. Now dubbed the Gr.3 Mazda RX-Vision GT3 Concept, the slinky crimson contender will soon become the second GT3-class Mazda in the game alongside the Atenza Gr.3. Polyphony says the race car will arrive on May 25 as part of an online update.  

Usurprisingly, the final product is toned down from last year's teaser sketch, yet the teaser was so wild that the in-game version retains plenty of extravagance. Drivers can see over the hood now, but the front splitter is even more extreme, the nose more chiseled and angry, fenders and hood drawn with new lines and more character, and a front-exit exhaust pokes out of an aero duct behind the front wheel. Revised struts hold the giant rear wing aloft, and a less outlandish diffuser sheds its tall endplates but still makes a menacing sight from the back.

As of this year, Toyota will have yet another small SUV in its lineup which will slot under the C-HR and will share underpinnings with the new Yaris.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has introduced their new Uconnect 5 infotainment system which is based on Android.

Japanese police have discovered a new computer program that helps hackers get unauthorized access to online services more efficiently.

The discovery comes after police arrested last May a Chinese national on suspicion of operating an unregistered server to make illicit money transfers overseas.