MOTEGI, Japan (Reuters) – The head of Honda Motor Co said there could be plenty of demand for battery-powered electric cars, making the strongest endorsement yet of the technology that his predecessor had long shunned as impractical and unrealistic.

Japan’s second-biggest automaker announced in July plans to launch a plug-in hybrid and pure electric car in 2012, but had stopped short of laying out a roadmap of how they would contribute to its business.

SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) – South Korean car makers posted record sales in October while their Japanese rivals saw double-digit declines in domestic sales for the month, underscoring how the former is gaining ground globally.

Indian carmakers maintained double-digit sales growth in October on robust demand in one of the world’s fastest-growing markets.

SEOUL/TOKYO, Nov 1 (Reuters) – South Korean car makers
posted record sales in October while their Japanese rivals saw
double-digit declines in domestic sales for the month,
underscoring how the former is gaining ground globally.

Japanese car makers face dwindling auto sales on their home
turf with the end of government subsidies, whereas South Korean
companies are expected to continue to outperform the global
market in a weak recovery, driven by new model launches.

SEOUL/TOKYO, Nov 1 (Reuters) – South Korean car makers
posted record sales in October while their Japanese rivals saw
double-digit declines in domestic sales for the month,
underscoring how the former is gaining ground globally.

Japanese car makers face dwindling auto sales on their home
turf with the end of government subsidies, whereas South Korean
companies are expected to continue to outperform the global
market in a weak recovery, driven by new model launches.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Honda Motor Co’s (7267.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) rosier forecasts and a surge in quarterly profit showed deep cost cuts could go a long way in absorbing currency losses, but Japanese rivals more dependent on exports may face a tougher second half.

Japan’s No.2 automaker has raised its global car production for the past 10 months, with record output in China and other parts of Asia thanks to brisk demand in those markets.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Nissan Motor Co said on Thursday it would recall 2.14 million March/Micra, Cube and about a dozen other models in its third-biggest recall, to fix a faulty ignition relay that could cause engine problems.

No accident was reported from the defect, Nissan spokesman Toshitake Inoshita said.

YOKOHAMA, Japan, Oct 26 (Reuters) – A top executive at Nissan
Motor Co (7201.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) warned that Japan’s auto industry faces a
crisis beyond near-term losses as the yen hit a fresh 15-year
high and came within reach of a record peak against the dollar.

“We’re way past the point of talking about how the yen’s
rapid appreciation would damage our earnings, or that we’re
worried about it,” Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga said
on Tuesday at the launch of the company’s new hybrid car.
[ID:nTOE69P012]

TOKYO, Oct 25 (Reuters) – Asia’s top automakers including
Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)
will likely post big jumps in quarterly earnings thanks to
better-than-expected global car demand and further cost cuts.

Japanese car makers are hurting from a stronger yen JPY=
but will likely manage big cost reductions and have enough of a
profit cushion from the first half to warrant an upward
revision to their conservative annual guidance, analysts said.

TOKYO/DETROIT (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp said on Thursday it would recall 1.66 million Avalons, Highlanders and other vehicles, bringing its total for worldwide recalls in the past year to about 14 million.

Most of the 1.66 million recalls announced on Thursday are in Japan and the United States, Toyota’s top market, in the latest blow to the reputation of a company once considered the gold standard of reliability.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp said on Thursday it would repair 1.66 million Avalon and other vehicles, mostly in Japan and the United States, in the latest large-scale recall to plague the world’s biggest automaker.

The announcement came less than two months after a recall in Canada and the United States of 1.3 million Corolla and Matrix cars carrying defective engine control modules that could cause the vehicles to stall.