The Texas plant will be open on Jan. 21 and other Saturday shifts will likely be added until the end of March, when the Japanese automaker hopes to see its inventory revert to normal levels.

‘The effects of the tsunami have run its course and we are back to rolling at full capacity of production,’ Brandyn Moore, a spokeswoman for the plant, said on Tuesday. ‘We are trying to catch back up and get the trucks back on inventory lots for the dealers.’

The March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan led to a global shortage of key components including sensors and specialty paint.

The San Antonio plant, which makes full-size Tundra pickup trucks and about half of Toyota’s Tacoma truck inventory, was idled for two three-week stretches after the disaster. The plant also worked on a shortened three-day schedule for 11 weeks over the summer.

Toyota began ramping up output at some of its North American plants in the fall. Toyota hopes inventory will be ‘where it needs to be’ by the end of March, Toyota spokesman Mike Goss said.

On average, Toyota dealers have about a 40-day supply of Tacoma pickup trucks, far short of Toyota’s target of about 70 days, Goss said. Tundra inventories hover around 70 days.

The production boost will also help meet increased demand after truck sales in the United States surpassed Toyota’s expectations in December.

‘December sales were very good for the Tundra and Tacoma markets, so because of that we have a recovery Saturday set for this weekend and possibly some more in March,’ Moore said.

Standing firmly on the opposing side of the issue, however, was the National Automobile Dealers Association, which said that the added cost of meeting the increasing fuel efficiency requirements will, when added to the sticker price of a vehicle, make new cars too expensive for some consumers and limit sales growth within the auto industry. The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have estimated that the increased technology will add $2,030 to the average vehicle purchase price, but that lifetime cost savings for fuel in 2025 would exceed $6,000, for a net savings of more than $4,000 over the life of a new vehicle; NADA disagrees with those figures, and plans to release their own study next month that estimates a total price increase per vehicle of up to $5,000.

More than 90 people are scheduled to speak during today’s hearing, which is slated to run through 7:30 PM EST to accommodate the extensive testimony.

The Japanese car maker is building a manufacturing plant at Gateway industrial park and restarting a production line at its Thai Auto Works (TAW) plant, where its Fortuners were produced, Kyoichi Tanada, president of the Toyota Motor Thai unit, told a briefing.

“The reason we invest more is simply because we’re not producing enough,” Tanada said.

The combined production capacity of the two new Toyota plants would be 88,000 units, he said, expecting the Gateway plant in Chachoengsao province to be ready for production in July 2013.

It will produce passenger cars as well as environmentally friendly “eco cars”, he said. The TAW plant in Samut Prakan province, which was closed in May 2010 after a drop in demand, would be able to start in December of this year, he said.

“We won’t move anywhere. I’ll let the Thai government work with JICA to solve the flood problems. I’m full of hope and confidence for both,” he said, referring to Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Despite the flood that hit the industry hard in the fourth quarter, analysts say Japanese car makers would continue to shift production to Thailand to take advantage of low costs.

Tanada said production losses for Toyota from the tsunami in Japan and the Thai flood amounted to 200,000 vehicles in 2011.

Japan’s Minebea Co Ltd also said on Tuesday it would invest $75 million to build a new plant in Thailand in the second half of this year despite suffering from the floods.

The bearing manufacturer said its two existing plants should restart in February and April.

RECOVERY

Toyota, in Thailand for five decades, expects total Thai auto sales to rise 38.5 percent to 1.1 million in 2012, recovering from a drop of 0.8 percent last year thanks to new models plus supportive government policies, Tanada said.

For Toyota itself, 2012 sales are projected to increase 55.1 percent to 450,000 units for a 40.9 percent market share, against an 11 percent drop to 290,061 units in 2011, with sales of passenger cars falling 2.6 percent to 138,104.

“There is still very high demand in Thailand’s automotive market and the demand is likely to increase in 2012,” Tanada said.

The forecast relates to 214,000 passenger cars and 236,000 commercial vehicles, the latter including 214,000 1-tonne pickup trucks.

Japanese car makers suffered big disruptions to their supply chain both from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami at home and the floods in Thailand, leading to a plunge in production, sales and inventory in many markets.

Car sales in Thailand in December fell 41.4 percent to 54,575 units, led by a 60.2 percent drop for Toyota.

Analysts say Thailand’s automobile market is expected to recover strongly in 2012, helped by tax rebates for first-time car buyers and pent-up demand as the industry recovers from the floods.

The ILX sedan and RDX crossover will be in showrooms in March. A redesign of the rest of the lineup follows within two years.

In 2015, Acura will see the rebirth of the NSX sports car as a hybrid sports car, developed and built in the United States, said Takanobu Ito, CEO of Honda Motor Co.

The new products, plus the ability to produce at full capacity after recovering from the Japan earthquake and Thai floods, mean Acura’s U.S. sales will increase from 123,299 units in 2011 to 180,000 this year, said Tetsuo Iwamura, CEO of American Honda Motor Co.

“If we do 180,000 units, that will be a success,” Iwamura said. “We are much more ambitious for the future. Last year, we struggled a lot with production, but this year we can go full speed.”

A larger replacement for the RL flagship comes this fall, followed in spring 2013 by the mid-sized TL sedan.
The ILX will share underpinnings and powertrains with the Honda Civic. The ILX is smaller than the outgoing TSX, which was based on the European Honda Accord platform. That footprint was too close to the TL sedan, which also was about the same size as the RL.

The arrival of the ILX won’t immediately eliminate the TSX, said Vicki Poponi, American Honda’s assistant vice president of product planning.

While admitting the TSX “is the car that gets squeezed,” Poponi said, “We can’t dump it right away. We’ll see how they work together.”
A redesigned RDX crossover will have a longer wheelbase and wider track. The RDX’s previous big weakness — a peaky, thirsty turbo-four engine — has been replaced with a 273 hp, 3.5-liter V-6 that gets a claimed 20/28 mpg rating.

“Over the next four years, the [small] entry sedan and compact crossover segments are the only two luxury categories with forecasts for growth,” said Jeff Conrad, Acura Division’s general manager.

Acura created a stir at the Detroit auto show with news that the upcoming NSX sports car will be developed in the United States and produced at an advanced manufacturing operation in Ohio. The sleek two-seater will have a 3.5-liter V-6 mated to two hybrid-electric motors.

To trumpet its revival, Acura has bought its first advertising spot during the Super Bowl, said Mike Accavitti, American Honda’s chief marketing officer.

“We’re going to get Acura noticed,” he said. “This is the big bang, game on. We don’t want to trickle the launches out. Acura is here.”

The Italian automaker, which also is the majority owner of Chrysler Group LLC, will introduce a five-door model “related” to its subcompact 500 at the Geneva motor show in March, said Olivier Francois, head of the Fiat brand.

The new model, he said, will be sold in the U.S starting next year. The company has a lot riding on the 500, inspired from the tiny 1950s original. Fiat sold almost 4 million 500s from 1957 to 1975, years when the model was as recognizable as Italian movie stars Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida. Fiat has sold more than 770,000 of the model since bringing the redesigned version back to the market in Europe in 2007.

The new 500 was to have been CEO Sergio Marchionne’s answer in the U.S. to the BMW Mini. The model’s first year on the North American market went poorly. Only 26,000 cars were sold, about half the number forecasted by the company. That’s thrown a wrench into Marchionne’s strategy to craft a global auto group combining Fiat and Chrysler and increase revenue to more than 100 billion by 2014.

“We thought we were going to show up and just because of the fact people like gelato and pasta, people will buy it,” Marchionne told reporters on Jan. 11. “This is nonsense.”

Now the company is banking on a roomier version of the 500 — as well as the high-performance Abarth derivative of the model, which goes on sale in North America this year — to get the brand selling. The new wagon model is expected to be bigger and has been developed specifically for the U.S. market, said Dave Sullivan, a product analyst at AutoPacific Inc.

‘Open arms’

“There needs to be a reason for people to downsize and spend more for less other than fuel economy and good looks,” Sullivan said in a phone interview. “Dealers would welcome with open arms something with more utility and space” than the 500.

AutoNation Inc. is betting that Fiat will replicate the success of BMW’s Mini brand by opening four Fiat franchises and adding two more. The Florida-based retailer has owned Mini franchises since it debuted in the U.S. in 2002.

“Mini started with a product everybody said would never work,” said Marc Cannon, a spokesman for AutoNation, Fiat’s largest U.S. dealer. “They added more product, the pipeline was slowly built and now everybody wants Mini” dealerships.

Distribution chances

Fiat expects to sell about 25,000 500s in the U.S. and as much as 40,000 cars in North America this year. The brand has 137 dealers open in the U.S. and will eventually have more than 150, Timothy Kuniskis, head of the Fiat brand in North America, said in an interview in Detroit.

In November he replaced Laura Soave, who had joined Chrysler in 2010 to reintroduce Fiat in the U.S. Fiat is also selling the American version of the model — which is built in Mexico — in China and Brazil.

“The dealers are very supportive,” Kuniskis said. “We still have growth opportunities because we’ve got 12 states that don’t have a single store.”

Awareness of Fiat has grown thanks to Francois’s ad campaign for the 500 featuring commercials with singer Jennifer Lopez, Kuniskis added.

The new Fiat five-door wagon, which will be built at the company’s plant in Serbia, may have a 500 nameplate, said a person familiar with the plan, who declined to be named as a final decision hasn’t been made. The model will come to market in Europe first.

Francois said it was too early to discuss the model’s name. Francois said Fiat may need a third model to complete its offerings in North America. Fiat dealers will also sells Alfa Romeo cars from the end of 2013, when the sports-car maker plans its return to the U.S. market.

Retro styling

BMW reintroduced the retro-styled Mini hatchback in 2001 as an upscale compact to appeal to urban drivers and has since added variants including a coupe, a convertible and a wagon to broaden its appeal. BMW has expanded the Mini lineup to six models, with the addition this year of a two-seat roadster.

The carmaker retained the brand after unwinding its failed takeover of the U.K.’s Rover Group. The brand’s U.S. sales increased to 57,500 last year from 24,590 in 2002, its first year, according to Autodata, a New Jersey-based researcher.

Even as Fiat missed sales targets last year and delayed the U.S. introduction of Alfa Romeo, the brand has increased its franchise count by about 30 percent in the past three months, said Mitch Phillips, global practice director at Urban Science, a Detroit-based dealer consultant.

Seeking partnership

“The dealer count has been stable,” Phillips said in a phone interview. “There is a demand for those dealerships.”

Fiat also wants to stem losses in Europe with sales of models related to 500, as well as its new subcompact Panda, after sales in its Italian home-market fell 14 percent last year to 506,020, according to the Italian transport ministry.

Marchionne, who acknowledged last April that he neglected European operations in favor of a U.S. turnaround, is now considering combining with another carmaker in the region to cut costs, share platforms and reduce the overcapacity issue as sales may remain flat until 2014.

“The real value of all this” would be in the small-car segments “where you could effectively unify the architectures,” he said last week in Detroit. Fiat moved Panda production back to a less productive plant in Italy, near Naples, from a Polish factory as part of its investment plan for Italy.

The carmaker will begin airing a new commercial Jan. 22 showing its commitment to the country using philosopher Aristotle’s motto, “The things we make, make us.”

“We have to restore the brand equity of Fiat,” Francois said. “Now clearly we have to re-establish the love relationship with Italians and their brand, as we did here” in the U.S. with Chrysler.

At the 2007 Frankfurt show alone, German car companies showed dozens of hybrids and EVs.

This year in Detroit? “Less electrification hype,” analyst David Leiker of Baird Equity Research said.

In part that’s because EVs and hybrids no longer are novelties, he said. But there’s a dollars-and-cents reason, too. Given the increased efficiency of refined gasoline engines and the relatively stable price of gasoline, the payback period for a hybrid — much less an EV or plug-in — has gotten longer.

Susan Cischke, a group vice president at Ford, said the fuel-efficiency of advanced gasoline engines rivals that of hybrids.

“Look at our EcoBoost engine — we’re getting fuel economies that approach hybrids,” Cischke said. “So at some point you don’t want to pick technology for technology’s sake. You want to look at the performance. With an oil-based product, we can still do as well as with a hybrid.”

Even some advocates are viewing electrification cautiously.

“I think it will be May or June before we know if this thing really has legs,” General Motors Vice Chairman Steve Girsky said of the staying power of the plug-in hybrid technology in the Chevrolet Volt.

Automakers certainly will continue to push various forms of electric drive for the long term. But consumer response to electrification has been tepid: Even the least-costly and most-familiar form — hybrids — have stubbornly stayed at 2 to 3 percent share of the U.S. market.

Automakers say gasoline-powered vehicles using technologies such as turbocharging and direct fuel injection can meet targets for the early years, at least, of new federal fuel economy standards. Their prices are palatable to consumers. The technology exists. And auto marketers don’t have to finesse consumer worries about driving range and refueling infrastructure.

That explains why fuel-efficient internal combustion engines were a significant part of many product unveilings at the Detroit show:

– Ford is offering hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of its 2013 Fusion. But it predicts the 1.6-liter, four-cylinder EcoBoost engine, which it says will get 37 mpg on the highway, will be the most popular option.

Ford is betting big on EcoBoost engines, which are turbocharged and have gasoline direct injection. Ford is increasing North American production from 160,000 in 2011 to 560,000 in 2012, said Ford spokesman Richard Truett.

– Both Chevrolet coupe concepts that GM showed have 1.4-liter Ecotec four-cylinder engines. If GM gives the green light, production models would get at least 40 mpg on the highway.

– Mazda’s CX-5, which comes out in March, gets 35 mpg highway when equipped with a manual transmission.

– The Dodge Dart is expected to be rated at 40 mpg on the highway, according to Dodge brand boss Reid Bigland.

– Volvo Car Corp. plans to adopt its new four-cylinder engine family in most of its models starting next year, said CEO Stefan Jacoby. Volvo’s VEA four-cylinder engines will replace all of the company’s four-, five- and six-cylinder powerplants starting in 2013. Volvo executives say the smaller-displacement engines will have the power and performance of its current range, but fuel economy will increase up to 30 percent.

There are countertrends. Toyota is betting that the sub-$20,000 Prius C hybrid will draw budget-conscious buyers. And in a press conference at the show, Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said the company has no second thoughts about the battery pack and EV capacity it is adding at Smyrna, Tenn., this year.

Meanwhile, analyst Leiker wrote in a note to investors that, with advances in internal combustion efficiency, “electrification is fading into the background.”

There we are given a two-minute, very-hurried pre-flight briefing. Normally you would think this would be pretty straightforward: “to release the seat belt, lift the buckle … count the number of seats to the nearest exit.”

(As an aside, why don’t commercial airlines just put a label on each seat saying, “your nearest exit is three rows back”, that would save everyone from counting, which no one does anyway.)

However, on an LC-130 there are some serious things to learn.

Foremost among these is the use of the emergency oxygen. It isn’t just a little yellow plastic mask that magically falls from the ceiling. It’s a military-issue hood in a green bag that you unclip from the railing behind your seat, unfold, and then pull various tags to release chemicals that generate oxygen. You then put the hood over your head and, hopefully, breathe.

A side effect of the chemical reaction is that the chemicals get very hot, so you have to be careful not to touch the reaction chamber in the hood.

Apparently the first sign of aircraft decompression is that the aircraft immediately fills with water condensation, and then your fellow passengers start to lose consciousness.

With the briefing over, twelve of us board the aircraft and prepare for take-off. With an explosion of noise we start barrelling down the runway, but after 67 seconds (yes, I was timing) the LC-130 shudders to a halt under reverse thrust. We then turn around and try again in the opposite direction. That also fails.

I’m getting a bad feeling about this.

Fortunately, on the third attempt we manage to lift our front ski and get airborne – nothing will stop us now.

We later learn from the crew that the snow was quite sticky and the wind was across the runway, which didn’t help. After the first two attempts, the skis on the LC-130 had made the snow sufficiently smooth that the final attempt was successful. Some deep-field sites (with a lot of loose snow) have required over a dozen take-off attempts.

The flight to the South Pole was uneventful and rapid – just 2.5 hours to go from latitude 78ºS to 90ºS.

The first hour of the flight took us over the spectacular Trans-Antarctic mountain range, riddled with glaciers and crevasses. It would be enormously difficult to cross this range without the benefit of aerial photography to know what lay ahead.

As the South Pole gets closer, the air pressure in the plane is reduced so that shortly after landing we will be at the same pressure as ice level, which corresponds to a pressure altitude of about 10,500 feet (3,200 metres) today. The pressure altitude can go above 12,100 feet (3,670 metres) when a low-pressure system passes overhead.

We start adjusting our ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) gear in preparation for the Antarctic conditions, including our “big red” parka, gloves, balaclava, and ski goggles.

The landing on skis is beautifully smooth, and the LC-130 taxis to within 100 metres of the US Amundsen-Scott South Pole station. Upon disembarking, the crew vigorously directs us to the right (left leads into the propellers, which is an easy mistake to make when you are disorientated by the cold, the low air pressure, and the desire to take photographs).

Within ten minutes we are within the warm station building, and are given our room assignments and briefing notes.

The South Pole Station is dominated by the “elevated building”, a two-storey multi-wing structure supported off the ice by a number of large pylons. The elevation is necessary so that wind-blown snow can pass under the building rather than building up against the walls, and ultimately burying it.

The elevated building contains individual sleeping quarters for most of the 240 people on site, as well as a galley, medical centre, science labs, the communications centre, meeting rooms, a greenhouse, library, sauna, gym, and a few rooms for recreation.

Craig Kulesa, Abram Young, and David Lesser – all from the University of Arizona – are staying in the “summer camp”, which is a group of half-a-dozen Jamesway shelters about ten minutes walk from the elevated building.

The sudden jump in pressure altitude from sea level at McMurdo Station (where we departed from) to 3,200 metres has a very noticeable effect on the body. After a few hours I start to get a headache, which, fortunately, does not develop into more serious altitude sickness.

Sleeping is also difficult at altitude, and the extreme dryness of the air can cause nasty skin conditions and nasal problems. A small cut of the skin can take a very long time to heal due to the dry air.

The air is so dry because it’s so cold that almost all the water vapour in the air has simply frozen out as ice crystals. In fact, when the temperature drops below -50ºC – which it will do as the sun begins to set in about six weeks time (the sun is up 24 hours a day here at the moment) – the air becomes drier than cylinders of commercial dry nitrogen.

It has been a long and eventful day, but prior to heading to bed we meet with Al Baker, a senior manager on station, and discuss our logistical and cargo needs for the next few days. Continuing a theme that is one of the defining traits of the US Antarctic Program (USAP), everyone we meet is keen to help us have a successful mission.

The auto isn’t a smartphone on wheels yet — but it looks like it’s getting there fast.

“The car is a mobile application,” said Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally, who spoke after unveiling the 2013 Ford Fusion Energi, a plug-in hybrid sedan, at the Las Vegas Convention Center,

“If you want to be connected, use your own smartphone in the car, have it voice-activated, hands on the wheel and eyes on the road — that’s the Ford strategy.”

Mulally was the first auto executive to keynote the show four years ago, signaling Ford’s awareness of the importance of connectivity to car buyers. Several automakers exhibited here, including such first-timers as Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler Group.

Mulally also announced that Ford is doubling, to 14, the infotainment applications available on Ford vehicles, including applications with National Public Radio; Roximity, an online coupon vendor; and Slacker, a custom Internet radio service.

Applications — apps, in shorthand — are programs that operate Web services such as iTunes.

Daimler AG Chairman Dieter Zetsche said during a keynote speech that advancements in the company’s next-generation telematics system, mbrace2, will allow Mercedes-Benz to send apps and software updates to customers by satellite or over the Internet.

That will save them a trip to the dealership and address a thorny problem for automakers: how to keep customers current with fast-evolving technology, while maintaining control of applications that drivers use in an effort to limit driver distraction.

Starting this spring, with the launch of the redesigned SL class, mbrace2 will be standard on 2013 models.

Chrysler used its first show appearance to show its UConnect in-vehicle communication system, which features new voice recognition for its navigation system. Kia Motors used the show to highlight advancements to its UVO in-car communications system. UVO eServices adds crash notification, diagnostics, maintenance features and other conveniences.

Truck output rose 10 percent in the United States, 23 percent in Canada and 19 percent in Mexico. North American truck production rose 13 percent.

Light-vehicle output rose 21 percent in the United States, 27 percent in Canada and 13 percent in Mexico.