Toyota Motor Corp, the world’s No. 1 automaker, reported yesterday that its global production last month fell for the third straight month, even as Japanese rivals Nissan and Honda expanded output.
Toyota, whose reputation took a hit this year from massive recalls, said its worldwide production fell 8.7 percent from a year earlier to 656,924 vehicles. Production outside Japan rose 0.3 percent thanks to higher output in South Africa and in Asia.
The company agreed to pay US$10 million to the family of four people killed in a runaway Lexus crash that led to recalls of millions of the automaker’s vehicles, an attorney said on Thursday.
The maker of the Corolla and Prius hybrid recorded a 9.4 percent fall in exports and a 35 percent slide in domestic sales, which tumbled because of the expiration of government subsidies for ecological car purchases.
Tokyo-based Honda Motor Co produced 317,473 vehicles globally last month, up 5.4 percent from a year earlier and the 12th straight month of growth.
Production in China and the rest of Asia hit a record-high for the company, Honda said. In China alone, it made 61,955 vehicles, up 2.7 percent from the previous year. Honda’s exports rose 71 percent, while sales in Japan plunged 37 percent.
ROBUST DEMAND
Nissan Motor Co, based in Yokohama, Japan, made 372,106 vehicles during the month, up 19 percent and a record-high for November, the company said. Robust demand for the new March compact car and the NV200 van drove China production up 19 percent on year to 91,633.
That helped offset an 8.6 percent output decline in the US.
Toyota’s US$10 million Lexus lawsuit was released on Thursday by Orange County lawyer Larry Willis, who represents the dealership that lent the Lexus to the family, attorney Jean-Paul Jassy said.
Jassy spoke with Willis and represented several media organizations that filed a motion opposing efforts to keep the details sealed.
SETTLEMENT
The dealership was privy to the confidential September settlement agreement, but has not yet reached its own agreement with those who sued.
The settlement amount was first reported on Thursday by the Los Angeles Times.
Toyota, which did not admit or deny liability in the settlement, said in a statement it was disappointed the amount had been made public.
“As is common in these cases, these parties agreed to keep the amount confidential, in part to protect the families from unwanted solicitations and to allow them to move on from this difficult period,” the automaker said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six