Auto Moto

TOKYO — Japan's Toyota Motor Corp put its revamped Mirai hydrogen fuel cell car, with 30% greater range, on sale Wednesday in a fresh push to promote the zero-emission technology amid rapidly growing demand for electric vehicles, including its own.

Toyota has failed until now to win drivers over to fuel cell vehicles (FCV), which remain a niche technology despite Japanese government backing, amid concerns about a lack of fueling stations, resale values and the risk of hydrogen explosions.

Hot on the heels of the 2022 MDX breaking cover, it has been revealed that Acura won't be building a hybrid variant of the fourth-generation SUV.

It's not often that we see behind the scenes of SEMA builds, but Toyota is taking us there right now. Two builds are in progress, but the Supra project has the majority of our attention.

The main appeal is watching the roof be cut out of the brand-new Toyota GR Supra. You can see it happen in the video at the top of this post. Of course, the joy of removing the roof from the new Supra stems from the targa top option of the previous Supra. The fifth-gen Supra is only available in hardtop coupe form, but if you really want a Supra convertible, just buy a BMW Z4.

Euro NCAP has released the results of its latest batch of tests, which saw seven new vehicles being crashed, including the Land Rover Defender, Honda e, Audi A3 Sportback, Seat Leon, Isuzu D-Max, Kia Sorento and Hyundai i10.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says it confirmed 572 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday.

The capital's daily tally is the second-largest, following 584 cases reported on Saturday.

Lawmakers from Japan's ruling party have approved the Defense Ministry's plan to construct two new vessels equipped with the Aegis anti-ballistic missile system.

Defense Minister Kishi Nobuo explained the plan at a defense and security affairs meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party on Wednesday.

One of Tokyo's most popular spots for viewing the first sunrise of the year will be closed on New Year's Day, due to precautions against the spread of coronavirus infections.

Mount Takao in western Tokyo usually attracts large crowds of people hoping to observe the year's first sunrise from the summit.

The 2021 Nissan Armada made its debut today, and the changes this year amount to a heavy mid-cycle refresh. Nissan's full-size SUV isn't especially old in model years having debuted in its current form for the 2017 model year, but that doesn't tell the whole story. This generation of Armada is essentially a Nissan-ized Infiniti QX80. At this point, the QX80 is two facelifts on from the vehicle it was when it was all-new in 2011 — at that point, it was still called the QX56. Underneath it all is the internationally-sold Nissan Patrol, which is still the basis of this refreshed 2021 Armada.

Make sense? OK, onward to what's new.

It's only been a few short years since the Nissan Kicks was introduced, but Nissan has the tiny crossover's first update ready to rock. The 2021 Nissan Kicks gets revised styling in front and back, some thoughtful interior changes and a number of tech improvements.

You'll notice the new grille first, mostly because it's so much bigger than before. Due to its size, Nissan has changed the name to "Double V-Motion," as opposed to just "V-Motion." Groundbreaking stuff. The grille does serve its purpose of making the little Kicks look bigger and more SUV-like, though. It's complemented by redesigned LED headlights, LED foglights and a more aggressive bumper. Around back, Nissan gave it a full-width rear light with a new LED element. There's a new bumper design with some fake-looking strakes poking down from the rear finisher, too. And Nissan introduced three new colors: Electric Blue Metallic (what you're seeing in the photos, Scarlet Ember Tintcoat and Boulder Gray Pearl.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government officials confirmed 352 new cases of coronavirus in the capital on Tuesday.

The number of people who have tested positive in Tokyo now stands at 44,355.

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.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says 327 new cases of coronavirus infection were confirmed on Sunday.

This is the 12th day in a row that the daily case count has exceeded 300 in the Japanese capital.

Japanese officials reported 2,497 new cases of coronavirus as of 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.

They also reported 13 deaths.

Japanese scientists say the space probe Hayabusa2 has successfully released a capsule which is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere.

The capsule is believed to contain sand from a remote asteroid Ryugu. It is scheduled to land in a desert in South Australia.