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Toyota throwing water on fast-charging EVs

Toyota is undoubtedly committed to moving beyond the internal combustion engine for future automobiles. But, while the company embraces hybrids with boosted production, new models and in motorsports, the automaker is more standoffish when it comes to pure electric models. This is especially true as the Mirai hydrogen fuel cell sedan comes to market. In the mind of Mirai chief engineer Yoshikazu Tanaka, even fast-charging electric vehicles don't have much of a future because of their strain on the power grid. "If you were to charge a car in 12 minutes for a range of 500 km (310 miles), for example, you're probably using up electricity required to power 1,000 houses," he said to Reuters. Tanaka admitted that EVs have a place in the market, but it was for short drives during the day after being charged each night. As one of the people responsible for bringing the Mirai to the road, it shouldn't be too shocking that Tanaka puts his faith in hydrogen. He feels that H2 is the better choice for long-distance driving because of the available range and speed of refueling. "Of course, there are technological hurdles that need to be cleared to make this commercially viable," he said to Reuters. One of the biggest of those obstacles is building a new refueling infrastructure. But, despite government subsidies, Japan looks set to miss its goal of opening 100 H2 stations by the end of March 2016. Toyota has thrown a lot of support behind hydrogen but has been accused of overstating some of the fuel's benefits and embellishing the current refueling infrastructure. Still, engineers at the automaker are working to bring the cost of the fuel cell vehicle down to the level of a diesel by 2022.

NHTSA releases updated Takata airbag recalled cars list, but it still has errors

Unfortunately, the government's list still contains errors.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued an updated list of vehicle models that it's urging owners to repair under the mushrooming Takata airbag inflator recall. The latest version adds vehicles from new automakers like Subaru and Ford that are missing from the original announcement, and it also removes erroneous entries from General Motors, leaving only the 2005 Saab 9-2X (a reskinned Subaru WRX), and the 2003-2005 Pontiac Vibe, a joint project with Toyota.

Total auto recalls already on record pace in 2014

If you've noticed that there have been more recalls than usual this year, you may be on to something. According to a report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the US market is on pace to break a record for recalls. In 2013, 22 million cars were recalled. We're only a third of the way through 2014, though, and we've already halved that figure, with 11 million units recalled. That's wild.
Considering the past few months, it shouldn't be a surprise that General Motors is leading the charge, with six million of the 11 million units recalled coming from one of the General's four brands. Between truck recalls, CUV recalls and the ignition switch recall, 2014 hasn't been a great year for GM.
Other recall leaders include Nissan (one million Sentra and Altima sedans), Honda (900,000 Odyssey minivans), Toyota (over one million units in a few recalls), Volkswagen (150,000 Passat sedans), Chrysler (644,000 Dodge Durango and Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs) and most recently, Ford (434,000 units, the bulk of which were early Ford Escape CUVs). So while it's been a bad year for GM so far, its competitors aren't doing too well, either.