Japanese carmaker Nissan is now ranked as the number two Asian automotive brand in the Americas– after an incredible year that saw it record 1,561,230 vehicle sales across its Nissan and Infiniti brands.

Already established as Japan’s second largest carmaker, Nissan is now set to invest heavily on furthering its ambitions in the region. It will invest up to $2.0billion in a manufacturing complex in Aguascalientes, Mexico, which will complement two existing factories in the country – and is scheduled to begin operations in 2013.

Incredibly, the company’s sales growth was consistent across all of the geographic regions of the Americas – although it was the US, Mexico and Brazil that posted the largest gains.

Compared to last year, Nissan and Infiniti vehicles enjoyed 229,000 more sales – that’s up 17.2 per cent compared to 2010.

Toyotameanwhile, retains the leading position among Asian carmakers in the region – it sold 1.85million units during the year. Honda is in third place with 1.29million units; followed by Hyundai with 1.03million units; and Kia with 659,000 sales.

It seems we’re keeping our cars for longer – with the average age of cars and light trucks in operation in the US increasing to 10.8 years.

According to global automotive market intelligence firm Polk, the age of the average passenger car increased from 2010 to 2011 – up from 11 years to 11.1 years. Meanwhile, light trucks saw a more sizeable age gain – increasing their average age from 10.1 years to 10.4 years.  

It is believed that the slowdown in the ageing process of passenger cars – which have been increasing in age for the last five years – directly links to low sales volumes back in 2008 and 2009. While more trucks were sold over that period, they had a faster ageing rate. Now Polk believes that the trend may alter in the coming years with CUV and small SUV populations in the US market on the rise.

In addition, there was a rebound in new vehicle sales in 2011 – and it is likely that over the next two years the ageing rate will slow down further. The year marked the end of a US vehicle population slump that had been occurring since 2008 with total vehicles in operation at just over 240.5million – nearly the equivalent of the vehicles in operation during 2009.

It’s a New Year and it appears to be a new start for the automotive industry – which is expected to enjoy a resurgence in 2012.

Global automotive market intelligence firm Polk suggests that new vehicle sales in 2012 will increase by 6.7 per cent compared to 2011 – reaching 77.7million vehicles. China is expected to make the largest contribution, with an anticipated increase of 16 per cent – mainly due to growth outside the metropolitan cities of Shanghai and Beijing.

Meanwhile, light duty vehicle sales in the US are expected to increase at a moderate pace of 7.3 per cent to 13.7million vehicles – meaning it will still fall short of pre-recession levels of in excess of 16million vehicles. The luxury segment will be the largest growth area at more than 14 per cent.

Within the US, Toyota and Honda will experience the greatest market share growth in 2012 as they win back some of their lost share based on the natural disasters in Japan and Thailand. Volkswagen, meanwhile, will continue to increase market share in 2012 and approach the three per cent range in the US, thanks largely to the Beetle launch; while Hyundai and Kia should also enjoy sales growth although their market share is likely to remain flat.

Elsewhere, European sales are expected to be flat or even decrease with austerity measures likely to prevent governments from offering incentives that could boost sales.

Smaller cars may be seen as the future in developed countries – but in the rapidly developing nation of India, it appears larger and more expensive vehicles are taking off as a symbol of the country’s rising status.

According to a JD Power Asia Pacific study, more than one-half of repeat car buyers in the country buy a vehicle that is either larger or more expensive than the model they previously purchased. The premium compact car segment is gaining the most with one third of car buyers moving upmarket selecting a car from this segment – mainly because previously these owners had compact car models that are smaller and less expensive.

According to Mohit Arora, the executive director of JD Power Asia Pacific, vehicle ownership is tangible with progression and growing demand reflecting rising aspirations.

The study looks at what gratifies car owners inIndiaacross a range of performance categories and finds overall satisfaction with new vehicle design and performance in 2011 averages 829 (on a scale of 1,000) compared to 817 in 2010. It also finds that newly launched models earn higher satisfaction ratings compared to refreshed and carryover models.

Though the automobile market may have come a long way since the dark days of 2007-2008, it seems that it has yet to fully rebound.

According to figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, in the first 11months of the year, a total of 12,157,119 new registrations were recorded in the EU – that’s down 1.4 per cent compared to the same period in 2010.

Though the German market expanded by 9.1 per cent over the period, results in other major markets were less encouraging. France saw its registrations fall by 0.3 per cent; the UK by -4.5 per cent; Italy by -10.6 per cent; and Spain by a staggering -18.8 per cent.

There was discouraging news in November too, with demand for new cars in the EU decreasing by 3.5 per cent to 1,030,414 units – indeed Germany was the only major market to post growth over the month at 2.6 per cent.

In the UK, we’re accustomed to a ban on the use of mobile phones (cell phones) behind the wheel, without using a hands-free device. However, it now appears that our compatriots across the Atlantic are about to get in on the act.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has called for the first-ever nationwide ban on driver use of personal electronic devices while operating a motor vehicle.

As part of its recommendation, it wants the 50 states and the District of Columbia to: ban the non-emergency use of portable electronic devices, other than those designed to support driving; use the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) model to enforce these bans; and implement communication campaigns to inform motorists of the new laws.

Furthermore, it recommends that The Wireless Association and Consumer Electronics Association (CTIA) encourage the development of technology that will disable functions within reach of the driver when a vehicle is in motion. This technology should include the ability to use the devices in emergency situations when the vehicle is in motion and be able to identify seat position so as not to interfere with passengers.

According to chairman Deborah AP Hersman, 3,000 people lost their lives in 2010 alone due to distraction-related devices. As such, she believes it is time that a stand was taken for safety to turn off electronic devices when driving. In her words: “no call, no text, no update, is worth a human life.”

What is your opinion on this subject? Is it right to ban the use of personal electronic devices behind the wheel? Is this an important safety step? Or is it too much control over our personal choices? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.

It may sound bizarre, but researchers at MIT believe they have developed algorithms that can accurately estimate driver behaviour at junctions (also known as ‘intersections’) – including whether or not a car is likely to run a red light.

The team has formed two classes of algorithms that classify drivers either as “compliant” or “violating”. They are based on support vector machines and hidden markov models that have been used successfully in multiple disciplines.

According to figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), road accidents in the US caused 37,261 fatalities in 2008 and 2.35million injuries – with 45 per cent of injury crashes and 22 per cent of road fatalities being intersection-related. Indeed half the people killed in these accidents are not the drivers who run red lights, but other drivers, passengers and pedestrians.

Now, in a paper that will be published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, behaviour at intersections has been studied using statistical models and they show that stopping behaviour depends on several factors including: driver profile (such as age and perception reaction time); and geometric parameters (such as vehicle speed and distance to the intersection). According to the authors, the paper successfully validates these algorithms on a large naturalistic dataset

The algorithms were designed to maximise true positive rates while keeping false alarm rates below a five per cent threshold. They were validated on more than 10,000 intersection approaches collected in Christiansburg, Virginia, and showed consistent and significant improvements ranging from a minimum of 10 per cent increase in true positive rates to more than a 20 per cent increase when issuing a warning one and two seconds in advance.

Now it is hoped that smart cars of the future may be able to use these algorithms to help drivers anticipate and avoid accidents.

It may seem unthinkable, but concerns have been raised that with Japanese automakers expected to sharply increase output in the second half of the year, there could be a shortage of tyres and other auto parts.

According to reports in the Nikkei, Bridgestone Corporation has notified carmakers that orders for passenger car tyres will exceed its domestic output capacity – it is expected to face a shortage of around 500,000 tyres, or approximately five per cent of the orders received this year.  

Meanwhile, Japan Polypropylene Corporation, which is part of Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, is struggling to keep up with demand for resins used in parts such as bumpers. Its inventories are running low at its Kashima Plant, which shut down for two months following the earthquake. With regular maintenance also scheduled in October, the plant could face difficulties.

Overall, eight major manufacturers are expected to increase global output by around two per cent.

Having already surpassed France, the UK and Italy and establishing itself as the sixth largest automotive market in the world, India is now expected to become the third largest by 2020.

That’s the prediction of a special report entitled “India Automotive 2020: The Next Giant from Asia” released by JD Power and Associates. It highlights that more than 2.7million light vehicles were sold in India in 2010, compared to just 700,000 in 2000 and with increased economic activity and a widening population this number is expected to reach 11million by 2020. This would make it the third largest behind China (expected to reach 35million in 2020); and the USA (17.4million).

The report highlights that India’s government has pushed policies that support the development of its automotive industry.

Among the policies it has introduced has been a reduction on the sales tax of small cars and financial incentives for car makers to build and export vehicles overseas. As a result, many car makers have switched production operations to the country and designed vehicles specifically for the market.  During 2010, close to 80 per cent of all new passenger vehicles sold in the country were either mini cars or subcompact passenger cars – this compares to just 24 per cent in China and three per cent in the USA.

Nevertheless, the report highlights that there are some challenges ahead. India is still seen as having three deficits – international trade deficits; chronic government budget deficits; and an underdeveloped power generation and distribution infrastructure. As such, the country’s lagging infrastructure is seen as the biggest obstacle to growth but the Indian government has set aside billions for investment in power generation and road/rail networks.

The Beijing Municipal Government has issued several new measures aimed at tackling traffic congestion in the city.

Effective immediately, buyers of automobiles that are replacing old vehicles may continue to use the previous license plates and won’t be subject to its first quota system for new plates. Under its regulations, the issue of new license plates will be otherwise subject to a quota published annually by the municipal government with 88 per cent allocated to first-time individual buyers and 12 per cent to business buyers on a monthly basis via a lottery system. The quota for the coming year will be 240,000 – 20,000 per month.

In addition, there will be increased parking fees in certain areas and a cap on the number of automobiles that can be purchased by government agencies.

It has also been indicated that further measures may follow to restrict the use of motor vehicles in main congested areas within the city during peak traffic periods.

According to Hetong Guo, the chairman of Lentuo, the largest non-state owned automobile retailer in the city, the measures may adversely affect the growth of the automobile retail market but there is still optimism about market potential. He estimates that new car sales in 2011 will be significantly below the record number of approximately 800,000 in 2010 but believes a substantial amount of sales will be made to non-first-time buyers who buy new cars to replace their older vehicles.

He believes this development has been factored in by buyers who have stepped up purchase activities in the days prior to the publication of new measures with dealerships receiving a significantly higher number of orders in December, 2010 – far exceeding the normal rate in previous periods.