Tag Archives: Global

Toyota’s Akio Toyoda Chosen 2021 World Car Person of the Year

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Toyoda

Selected 2021 World Car Awards Person of the Year was Akio Toyoda, Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) president and CEO.

Toyoda

“Akio Toyoda is the charismatic President and CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation. He has spent years successfully remaking his company. In 2020 despite COVID-19, under his leadership Toyota remained profitable, protecting jobs worldwide. He has maintained Toyota’s steady pace of development in the connected, autonomous, shared and electric (CASE) era. He has also initiated construction of the Woven City, an exciting, real-life prototype city of the future. All while actively participating in motorsports himself, as a driver,” said the World Car Awards in a statement.

Toyoda said, “At Toyota, we are very fortunate that we were able to protect the employment of our team members during COVID-19 and continue our work to meet the future challenge of our industry. Creating new ways to support the well-being of our planet and people everywhere is our commitment. This has been a difficult period in the history of the world. But it has also reminded us that people are what matters most. And if we at Toyota can contribute some measure of happiness to their lives, it will be my never-ending goal to do just that.”

Toyoda

Toyota joined the company in 1984, after graduating with a law degree from Keio University. He also received a masters in business administration from Wellesley, Massachusetts’ Babson College. Toyoda served in different areas of the business in Japan and overseas, before becoming a member of the TMC board of directors in 2000. He held other senior and executive vice-presidential roles until becoming TMC president in 2009.

Toyoda The World Car Person of the Year award was established in 2018 to acknowledge the contributions made by an individual in the auto industry during the previous year. The World Car Awards program hands out six awards annually, which they started doing in 2003. A group of more than 90 journalists, none of whom are a part of TheTruthAboutCars.com, made the selection.

[Images: Toyota, Babson College]

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Chinese Smartphone Titan Xiaomi Entering the EV Race

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Xiaomi

Xiaomi, a Chinese smartphone colossus, has announced they are building their own branded electric vehicles (EVs), just like Apple, Huawei, Sony, and Foxconn.

If you’re prepared to lose money, starting a car company is easy. Just ask Tesla. Xiaomi has plenty, enough to sink $10 billion into the venture over the next 10 years.

Xiaomi, the third-largest smartphone maker, is merging automotive, electronics, and information and communication technology with the traditional auto industry model. Xiaomi’s expertise is in manufacturing, hardware-based Internet service, software, and hardware integration. Their appeal in China, brand recognition, and presence in other countries will no doubt help at launch.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi’s smartphone brand, POCO, has made its way into 35 markets in the past three years. Xiaomi shipped over 9 million phones worldwide in 2020. The POCO F1 was their first release in 2018, adopted early on by techies and later by the media, achieving over 2.2 million shipments.

XiaomiYesterday, Xiaomi released the Mi Mix Fold, a new foldable smartphone. Xiaomi’s entrance in this segment is notable beyond the foldable display. Xiaomi’s new flagship, it has 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The first camera phone to use their Surge C1 chipset, it’s also the first to use liquid lens technology.

Xiaomi

Besides the new smartphone, the company unveiled its new Xiaomi logo, designed by Japanese graphic designer Kenya Hara. Look for Xiaomi’s entrance into the EV segment to intensify the competition within China, as well as elsewhere in the world.

[Images: Xiaomi]

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Ford Bagged Again by NHTSA

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In a fight with NHTSA regulators, Ford came out on the short end again, as more Takata airbags were at issue. This time, it will cost the automaker $610 million, of which they will have to carry the cost in its entirety.

air bag

Takata, the Japanese company whose name is now synonymous with airbag failures and bankruptcy, was at the center of the largest recall in automotive history. That a single supplier was able to put their airbag on so many different vehicles around the world says volumes for globalization and the cost-cutting measures that would lead OEMs to Takata. According to a CNN.com story, Takata airbag recalls began in 2014, and prior to this week’s announcement, had reached 67 million airbags in more than 40 million vehicles in the U.S. alone.

Previously in Japan, leaders of companies like Takata would publicly declare their guilt, ask all who were affected for their forgiveness, and to clear the names of their families, would commit seppuku. If that term is unfamiliar, it’s also known as hari-kiri, to publicly disembowel yourself to rid yourself and your family of shame. Sadly, to the best of my knowledge, none of the corporate heads of Takata had the decency to observe this tradition, and it should continue to hang over the heads of not only Takata’s directors but their families, too (Ed. note — this is a joke and meant to be taken as such). Three Takata executives, Shinichi Tanaka, Hideo Nakajima, and Tsuneo Chikaraishi, were indicted by a grand jury in Japan. All three had worked for Takata in the U.S. and Japan until around 2015 when it was first noted that there were problems with their airbags.

Ford argued unsuccessfully that the Takata airbags used in the models and years affected by this recall are different than those involved in the previous recalls. NHTSA safety regulators said they still pose a risk and rejected Ford’s assertion. Models covered by the recall include the 2007-11 Ford Ranger, the 2006-12 Fusion, the 2007-10 Edge, the 2006-12 Lincoln Zephyr, and the 2007-10 MKX. You will receive a notification if your vehicle is included in the recall, you can enter the VIN number on Ford’s website, or check with your local Ford dealer. Ford will repair the airbags free of charge, and your local dealer may provide a loaner car if you ask nicely.

[Images: Ford]