Automobile daily news

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http://www.autolinedetroit.tv/daily/ I watch this every day.

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has any body seen todays news?

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electric cars and hybrids = fail.

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for todays news no Ev for Mazda.clik link for video.
As the industry starts to shift from internal combustion to electric power, more and more automakers are racing to develop batteries and EVs, except one. In a report from the Detroit News, Mazda is NOT developing any electric vehicles and it has no plans to. The company’s North American President Jim O’Sullivan says it will not enter vehicle segments unless it can offer “Zoom, Zoom.” For now, the company will concentrate on gasoline and hydrogen technologies.

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Tuesday we reported that Toyota had asked the Japanese government for a loan and now Honda and Mazda may do the same. Bloomberg reports that Honda would use the money to lend to U.S. car buyers and Mazda needs the funds mainly for its American and European operations. No word yet on how much money the two companies are seeking.

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today news.
Mazda will equip a urea system to the CX-7 that will be introduced later in the year, the first Japanese OEM to do so. The system was designed exclusively for the European market and is compliant with Euro 5 emission regulations. It will be combined with Mazda’s 2.2-liter turbo diesel. Mazda’s system is smaller than most which will allow them to equip it in a passenger car in the future.

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Mazda has come up with a new way to recycle polypropylene bumpers on cars. The process can recycle the bumpers from any car from any manufacturer. And it automatically removes metal attachments and other pieces, by crushing the plastic into pellets then separating them by blowing them away with air. It also automatically strips away any paint without heating the plastic. All this makes this process a lot more efficient than others.

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Instead of jumping on the hybrid bandwagon like everyone else, Autoblog reports that Mazda is focusing on clean diesel engines and weight reduction to get better fuel economy. The company says this strategy is the most effective way to get fuel-efficient cars on the road. It plans on selling an efficient, diesel-powered vehicle by 2011.

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In Japan, Mazda is offering commercial leasing of its Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid. The hybrid system boosts the hydrogen fuel range of the vehicle to 200 kilometers or 124 miles. It can also run on gas if hydrogen isn’t available. The first units will be delivered to government authorities and energy related companies

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Mazda developed a way to paint vehicles that reduces Volatile Organic Compounds or VOC’s found in paints as well as CO2 generated during the painting process. Mazda’s system includes an improved air conditioning system and a new, evaporation system that removes the water contained in paint, which is where most CO2 is produced. Mazda was also able to consolidate the painting process by developing top coat paints that have the qualities of primer paint, which reduces the amount of paint needed.

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In other Ford news, Mark Fields, the company’s President of the Americas, said that Ford will be moving away from developing vehicles with Mazda in the future. According to Bloomberg, the company wants to keep design and engineering within Ford. Since last year Ford has cut its stake in Mazda from 33 percent to just over 10 percent in an effort to raise cash during the economic downturn. Even Mazda’s CEO said “it seems both companies are going their separate ways” but he remained hopeful the two would collaborate in the future.

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I want this techshop menbership now.this is really cool, watch it
http://www.autolinedetroit.tv/show/1503

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MAZDA MAY LEAVE FLAT ROCK PLANT
Back in 1985 Mazda created a sensation when it announced it would start building cars in the United States. That’s back when the U.S. had an import quota on Japanese cars, which were then flooding the market. Mazda took over a casting plant in Flat Rock, Michigan that Ford had closed down and converted it into an assembly plant. Years later, when Mazda fell on hard times, Ford took over part of the plant, and started building Mustangs there, alongside the Mazda6. But as we’ve been reporting here for nearly two years, Ford and Mazda are increasingly going their separate ways. And now Mazda says it’s considering dropping out of the plant. Here’s my Autoline Insight. Mazda absolutely will drop out of Flat Rock. Sales of the Mazda6 have plummeted. Just a couple of years ago Mazda sold about 75,000 of them a year in the American market. This year it will be lucky to sell 33,000 of them. And I don’t see how Mazda can justify keeping that car in that plant at such low production volumes. They’ll move that production back to Japan

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Mazda is a great car company that’s in deep trouble. Coming up next I’ll tell you what I think the company has to do to turn itself around.

WHAT MAZDA MUST DO
Mazda is a beautiful little gem of a car company, but it’s in trouble, and it’s not as if there are any quick fixes that the company can turn to. It’s been losing money for four straight years and it will likely lose $1.3 billion this year, its worst financial performance in over a decade. Company CEO Takashi Yamanouchi says that Mazda is aggressively looking for a new partner after it and Ford divorced.

Mazda is reportedly considering borrowing and issuing new stock to raise $2 billion to raise capital for future operations. It is facing a credit downgrade, possibly to a junk rating, so now’s the time to try and raise that money.

Even so, more capital and a new partner are not going to turn the company around. Here’s my Autoline Insight as to what’s crippling Mazda and what the company must do to straighten out its own house.
Mazda’s problem is similar to the one that destroyed the Detroit automakers before the Big Collapse. It makes too many different models in too many plants. Mazda makes 13 different models, including a bunch of different passenger cars, crossovers and vans. And yet, its global sales are about 1.3 million a year. That averages out to 100,000 sales per model, with some far above that and others well below it. That’s too many models. Mazda probably needs three passenger cars: small, medium and large, and three crossovers based on those platforms. Then it needs to choose: MX-5 Miata or RX-8? You get to do one, not both. That means three mass market platforms and one specialty. That’s it.

Mazda also makes its vehicles in 13 assembly plants around the world, mainly in Japan, China and Thailand. But it also includes small CKD plants in Colombia, Equador, Zimbabwe and South Africa. For its level of sales Mazda really only needs 5 assembly plants. It should not be building new plants, including the one coming in Mexico, unless it closes similar-sized facilities in Japan.

One of the great advantages that Mazda has is that most people have a favorable impression of the cars and the brand. The problem is that not enough people buy them. But the Zoom Zoom campaign resonates everywhere in the world. Mazda needs to build on that to become the Alfa-Romeo of Japan. With the proper styling, not the goofy grinning grille, I believe it could pull that off.

And that wraps up today’s show, thanks for watching, we’ll see you tomorrow.

Thanks to our Partners for embedding Autoline Daily on their websites: Autoblog

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MAZDA WON’T GIVE UP ON ROTARY ENGINE
Mazda plans to drop its rotary-powered RX-8 sports car this June, but it’s still developing its Wankel engine. According to WardsAuto, the company says it’s close to a technical breakthrough that would improve the rotor seals – a major problem with this kind of engine. It’s also working on a revolutionary ignition system– no pun intended – that’s rumored to use lasers. This is all fine and good, but why is Mazda, a small, independent automaker investing so much time and money in rotary engines? They’ve never caught on in the history of the auto industry and they’re hugely expensive to manufacture because of all the machining they require. PLUS they have reliability, fuel economy AND emissions issues. To me this helps explain why Mazda is in so much financial trouble

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EVERY GRAM COUNTS
Speaking of improving fuel economy, here’s a cool tech tidbit we found on the new Mazda CX-5. That car weighs 220 pounds less than the CX-7 it replaces. And in its fanatical effort to cut weight, Mazda reduced the size of the heads on the bolts that it uses. The diameter and length of the bolts are the same, but the smaller head saves 8 grams per bolt. That’s the kind of attention to detail you need these days, and Mazda says regular sockets will still fit the new bolt design

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FIAT WANTS AN OPEN MARRIAGE
Sergio Marchionne says he needs another car company to round out his Fiat-Chrysler conglomerate and Mazda says it needs another partner, too. I mean, this is as easy to figure out as “one plus one.” In fact, Bloomberg reports that Marchionne is in talks with Mazda, as well as Suzuki, to see if they can hook up. Of course, Suzuki is already in a partnership with Volkswagen, but it wants a divorce so bad, it’s publicly throwing pots, pans and dishes at the German automaker. So far VW has dodged the brickbats and is sticking with the status quo. And you have to wonder how interested Mazda is in tying up with Fiat. It keeps saying that it’s still looking for a partner

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MAZDA’S SUSPENSION MAGIC
Here’s another fascinating tech tidbit we found on the new Mazda CX-5. The engineers wanted to use stiffer rear bushings for better handling, but that could make the ride too stiff. They knew if they could raise the attachment point of the rear trailing arm, like you see on the right-hand side of this drawing, it would smooth out the bumps, allowing for stiffer bushings. But raising the attachment point would require raising the floor height, which would reduce interior room. Instead, they created a pocket in the rear frame rail and tucked the attachment point in there. It’s a simple yet clever solution, and one that makes the CX-5 a delight to drive.