earthquake

The March 11 earthquake in Japan left the country's auto industry with a broken supply chain and a few serious plant problems. Bloomberg reports that Nissan is looking to strengthen some key plants in an effort to minimize harm from any future quakes, starting with the heavily damaged Iwaki ...

While Toyota has been one of the automakers hardest hit by the tragic Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters in March of this year, nearly every auto company on the planet felt its impact. Thanks to a global, tight-laced network of interconnected suppliers, manufacturers were left ...

In March, we heard that, because of production delays as a result of the March 11 earthquake in Japan, Toyota was looking at delays for the new Prius V and Prius + models set to go on sale in North America and Europe, respectively. The Detroit News is reporting that those delays could last as ...

Toyota has announced profits of $314 million for the first three months of 2011, down 77 percent versus the automaker's fiscal fourth quarter a year earlier. Toyota still managed a profit in spite of the March 11 earthquake that shuttered most Japanese plants, yet the $314 million is only a ...

According to The Mainichi Daily News, customs agents in Chile have detected low levels of radiation on vehicles shipped from Japan. Of the 2,500 vehicles shipped from the port of Yokohama, radioactivity was detected on 21 once they reached Iquique. The levels of radiation were determined to be ...

Honda is continuing to adjust its production schedules in the wake of the March 11 earthquake in Japan, and the shuffling will reportedly continue at U.S. plants as well. The plan is to run full production shifts at U.S. facilities on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from May 9 through July 1, with a ...

According to Bloomberg, Honda has delayed the release of the next-generation CR-V as a result of supplier constriction brought on by the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear tragedies in Japan. The report says that the 2012 Honda CR-V will debut a month later than originally anticipated, though that ...

Japan's Renesas Electronics Corp. is moving up the restart date for automotive microchip production at its last inactive plant. The company says it should have operations back up and running at its Naka plant the week of June 15, a couple weeks earlier than its original estimate. Renesas is the ...

The Detroit News is reporting that Toyota believes its production will be back on track by November or December of this year. The automaker saw global manufacturing slow after the tragic earthquake and tsunami activity of last month, though pre-disaster levels of production may return in Japan as ...

The March 11th earthquake and tsunami in Japan hit Honda hard, as production was down for weeks and the automaker's research and development center was badly damaged. In fact, the quake damaged the Tochigi facility so badly that one employee died and 17 others were injured after a cafeteria wall ...

Honda has announced it will resume production at its Japanese plants effective April 11. Though the factories are ready to be up and running at full capacity again, Honda is keeping production levels at 50 percent due to a shaky parts supply. The company says production at its U.S. facilities ...

If you've watched any of the news coverage of the Japan earthquake, you've likely seen the tsunami footage showing cars being tossed around like Hot Wheels. The waterlogged vehicles number in the thousands, and the Japanese government has a big task in cleaning up the mess. Reuters reports that ...

Due to the extensive damage in Japan caused by the massive earthquake and resultant tsunami on March 11, many have questioned if the island nation can recover in a year, much less a few months. If the swiftness with which the Japanese can repair roads is any indication, we wouldn't bet against ...

2012 Toyota Prius V – Click above for the high-res image gallery The new-for-2012 Prius V was scheduled to go on sale in Japan at the end of April, but Automotive News reports that production delays stemming from the March 11 earthquake have pushed that date back a bit. In Toyota's ...

It may be some time before consumers in line for a new Japanese car get their hands on their new ride. Besides killing thousands of people, shocking the nation's infrastructure and setting off the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, the Japanese earthquake disaster has halted car production ...

As fears of radiation from Japan's severely compromised Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant seem to be growing by the minute, automakers have tried to assure car buyers that most of their products are produced far enough away from the crippled facility that fallout won't end up on vehicles, ...

General Motors has announced that the automaker is stopping production at its Shreveport, Louisiana assembly plant next week due to a parts shortage caused by the ongoing tragedy in Japan. The facility is responsible for building both the GMC Canyon and Chevrolet Colorado pickup trucks, though ...

As a result of the devastation left behind by the recent earthquake and tsunami activity in Japan, the organizers of MotoGP have moved the Motegi round to October 2. The race was originally scheduled for next month, but widespread damage to the road system between Tokyo and Mito is not expected ...

Honda has announced that it will temporarily suspend operations at both its Hamamatsu and Kumamato facilities this week. Both plants are responsible for producing the company's stable of motorcycles. The Hamamatsu plant, which builds the CBR600RR and CBR1000RR, has closed its doors today, March ...

It's difficult to comprehend, let alone describe, the massive amount of damage an 8.9-magnitude earthquake and closely following tsunami could incur on a densely packed island nation such as Japan. While we struggle to wrap our minds around such catastrophic levels of destruction, one particular ...