Global round up

According to reports in Japanese newspaper Asahi, Honda Motor has said it will halve vehicle exports from Japan over the next decade in an effort to tackle damaging currency fluctuations that have hit the company with the rise of the yen.

 

Honda currently exports 37% of its domestic output but has already stated it plans to reduce this to between 10-20% and sell between 80-90% of vehicles from local production in its various markets around the world

 

Honda’s announcement follows a similar one made by Nissan Motor in August, which said it was cutting its exports from Japan by a third in a new strategy designed to boost domestic sales and reduce the impact of the yen, which was hitting the company’s profits.

 

Last year Nissan exported almost 60% of its domestic output, the highest percentage among the top three Japanese carmakers. It now plans to raise production for local sales in Japan to 600,000, up from last year’s 460,000.

 

Nissan recently stated it was moving production of the Rogue SUV to its US plant in Smyrna, Tennessee and will also start production of the Infiniti JX SUV there in 2012. Moving the Rogue will reduce shipments of 100,000 vehicles per year.

 

Toyota exported 53% of its domestic output.

 

Japan recently unveiled a plan to make $100 billion available to help companies acquire assets overseas while boosting its oversight of foreign exchange markets against speculative moves.

 

Following a £4m ($6.2m) investment in its fleet modernisation programme, Ontime Automotive has signed a three-year contract with BMW for the delivery of new vehicles to the German carmaker’s UK fleet and corporate customers. Deliveries will begin at the beginning of 2012.

 

BMW provides vehicles to a range of fleet and corporate customers in the UK. They will be collected for delivery from BMW’s vehicle distribution centre in Thorne, near Doncaster, and direct from its plant in Oxford.

 

Ontime has a fleet of 366 vehicles that operate throughout Europe.

 

 

Ontime’s Specialist Transport Division will streamline the deliveries using real-time data capture and electronic proof of delivery (EPoD). It has recently migrated EPoD to a new mobile data capture system provided by CipherLab, an AIDC (automatic identification and data capture) provider. Ontime’s investment in the hardware and software is in excess of £350,000 ($542,000).

 

 

Upon collection and delivery, drivers are able to capture electronic signatures and record the condition of the vehicles using the handheld’s built in camera. This information, along with dates and exact times, is transmitted immediately, allowing customers to accurately track the status of their shipments.

 

Sales of BMW cars in the UK passed the 2m mark in September, 31 years since it was first sold in the UK. The two millionth car sold was a BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo. The first was an E12 5 Series Saloon.

 

Hyundai Motors India has announced it will focus more on export markets in the face of disappointing domestic sales in the country.

 

Hyundai exports the i10 and the i20 hatchbacks from India to several EMEA markets.

 

The carmaker had earlier reduced its exports to focus on increasing demand from the local market. However, with slow car sales, it has decided to increase them again.

 

Hyundai is India's second largest carmaker. In July the company sold 25,642 units in the domestic market, down on the nearly 29,000 units sold in the same month last year.

 

However, export sales increased to more than 24,000 units in July this year from 21,600 units in July last year.

 

In August, the company's domestic sales fell by around 2,000 units to 26,700 units compared to last year, a drop of 6.7%. Meanwhile exports went up 10.5% to 24,350 units, against 22,032 units in August 2010.