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Japanese automakers ramping production for renewed American sales

The 2011 earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan took quite the toll on the automotive industry in that nation. Not content to lean on that tragedy as excuse for slagging sales, the Japanese automakers are planning on a major production expansion in North America. The aim is to reclaim the market share lost from the Tsunami-based dip, and overcome a dollar/yen exchange rate that makes exporting to America unprofitable.
Following the Tsunami, Japanese automakers ramped up production in their North American facilities to compensate, but according to Automotive News, Nissan, Honda and others have all reported plans for still-further increased production in the year ahead. As part of this ramp-up, Mazda will open a facility in Salamnca, Mexico before March of 2014. Part of that increase in output is 50,000 units of a Toyota-badged compact car, which Mazda will produce.
Other Mexican production facilities opening include a Honda plant, which will open in Spring 2014 in Celaya, and a Nissan plant, set to open later this year in Aguascalientes. Nissan also said that it will need another plant in North America within the next five years. According to Nissan Boss Carlos Ghosn, the company aims to raise its stake in the US market from 8 percent to 10, and adding production will help achieve that goal. Even Mitsubishi is aiming to boost production at its Normal, Illinois plant. Production of the Outlander Sport is currently at 50,000, which Mitsubishi wants to raise to 70,000.

Honda may recall up to 1M vehicles for airbag issue, following Toyota's lead

It seems Toyota won't be the only one recalling the faulty Takata airbag inflators for long. Honda insiders in Japan claim that the company is getting close to announcing its own worldwide campaign that would begin before the end of June.
Unnamed sources close to Honda in Japan tell Automotive News that the company is pursuing an internal investigation into possibly affected models and is working with Takata to gather more information. They claim that it could involve even more than the 1.14 million cars worldwide that the automaker covered under the first recall for the problem in April 2013, including 561,000 vehicles in the US.
Toyota jumpstarted this process last week when it recalled over 2 million cars worldwide, including 844,277 in the US. Soon after, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began a preliminary evaluation into the issue following six reported incidents, and started assembling data about potentially affected models from Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Chrysler. NHTSA also began investigating Takata itself.

Mazda RX-Vision GT3 concept slinks into Gran Turismo Sport next year

The World Final of the FIA World Tour in Gran Turismo Sport just went down in Monaco, and Mazda was there with a couple of big announcements. The first is that the Hiroshima-based automaker will become an official video game partner next year, 2020 also happening to be Mazda's centenary year. The second reveal was a sketch of the Mazda RX-Vision GT3 Concept, a GT3-class racer based on the RX-Vision Concept shown at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show. Game creator Kazunori Yamauchi and Mazda's North American design chief Julien Mountousse wouldn't get into details, such as how close the final car would look to the drawing or whether there'd be a rotary engine under the hood. Yamauchi would only say Polyphony Digital is modeling the car right now, and Montousse added that designers wanted the Vision GT3 to be a car players really wanted to drive. As much of a looker as the race car is, it's clear some changes will be in order; the front fenders, roof, and rear wing are nearly on the same plane. The brunt of aero accessorizing happens down low, a massive front splitter leading to extended side sills with vertical planes, and what must be a massive rear diffuser with an even larger set of vertical planes. It's hard to tell by the drawing, but it looks like the rear wing supports angle out from the body to merge with the end plates. When the RX-Vision GT3 shows up to contest the 2020 FIA-certified championships in GT Sport, it will join the Atenza Gr.3 as Mazda's only GT3-class car in the game — the Atenza effectively a near copy of the Speed Source Mazda6 that raced in the U.S. Grand-Am series until a couple of season ago, but with four doors instead of two, and a gas engine instead of diesel. Mazda didn't qualify for the GT Sport Manufacturer's Cup this year, they'll be hoping their team can change that next year with the RX-Vision GT3 since, as Montousse said, "That car has all the Mazda spirit in it." There will be more coming from Mazda in GT Sport as well. Word is that the official partnership won't stop at a single new car, and Yamauchi remarked on the partnership, "I think we can keep our expectations high for next year." Fast forward to 17:50 in the video to see the sketch presented, or roll back a bit to 14:00 to listen to comments from Mazda global head of design Ikuo Maeda.