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The automobile industry is shifting from internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) to hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) or electric vehicles (EVs) extremely fast. Our calculation regarding the most popular private car brand in Bangladesh, Toyota, shows that the life cycle cost (LCC) of a Toyota BZ3 (EV), USD 43,409, is more expensive than a Toyota Aqua (HEV) and Toyota Prius (HEV), but cheaper than a Toyota Axio (ICEV) and Toyota Allion (ICEV). It has been found that about a 25% reduction in the acquisition cost of a Toyota BZ3 would lower its LCC to below others. EVs can be a good choice for those who travel a lot. Changes in electricity prices have little effect upon the LCC of EVs. With the expected decline in the annual price for batteries, which is between 6 and 9%, and the improvement of their capacities, EVs will be more competitive with other vehicles by 2030 or even earlier. EVs will dominate the market since demand for alternative fuel-powered vehicles is growing due to their environmental and economic advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Previous research has managed to clearly define lean technical competencies. However, the behavioral competencies remain underestimated, and the roles of lean experts are not clearly stated: are they teachers, facilitators or technical experts? The present paper investigates lean behavioral competencies and their relationship to lean experts' roles. Design/methodology/approach: This article serves as an exploratory study built on interviews, observations and focus groups conducted during a three-year longitudinal study accompanied by a three-year follow-up. The case takes place in an international automotive company in partnership with Toyota in which lean adoption was part of a consistent strategy over a period of 20 years. Findings: The study clarifies lean behavioral competencies related to organizational efficiency (nominal management, improvement management and respect for people) and relational efficiency (problem resolution, competencies development and systemic interactions). The study helped create a typology of lean experts' roles related to the maturity level of the environment in which they intervened. Moreover, Lean experts' roles in congruence with the environment seem to positively influence the creation of emerging human relationships that are beneficial to process improvement and competencies development. Originality/value: This paper is the first to clarify behavioral competencies with respect to lean experts' roles and to study the temporality of the introduction of lean practices. The findings recommend that researchers better acknowledge the influence of lean behavioral competencies during lean adoption and their relationship to contextual factors and organizational performance. A practical methodology is proposed to measure the necessary behavioral adjustments of lean experts or employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Envy freeness is one of the most widely studied notions in fair division. Because envy-free allocations do not always exist when items are indivisible, several relaxations have been considered. Among them, possibly the most compelling notion is envy freeness up to any item (EFX). Informally speaking, EFX requires that no agent i envies another agent j after the removal of any item in j's bundle. The existence of EFX allocations is a major open problem. We study the existence of EFX allocations when agents have general valuations. For general valuations, it is known that an EFX allocation always exists (i) when n = 2 or (ii) when all agents have identical valuations, where n is the number of agents. It is also known that an EFX allocation always exists when one can leave at most n − 1 items unallocated. We develop new techniques and extend some results of additive valuations to general valuations on the existence of EFX allocations. We show that an EFX allocation always exists (i) when all agents have one of two general valuations or (ii) when the number of items is at most n + 3. We also show that an EFX allocation always exists when one can leave at most n − 2 items unallocated. In addition to the positive results, we construct an instance with n = 3, in which an existing approach does not work. Funding: This work was partially supported by Kyoto University and Toyota Motor Corporation [Joint Project "Advanced Mathematical Science for Mobility Society"]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several Chinese companies have emerged as global competitors in the non-traditional automotive industry and have become attractive partners for foreign firms in high-technology development. To identify the motives behind such strategic partnerships in the new energy vehicle industry, we combine dynamic capabilities with institutional factors of both national and emerging regional levels generated by the Belt and Road Initiative. Case studies of BYD, SinoHytec, Hino, and Toyota's joint ventures reveal that besides pursuing complementary technology, firms are being pushed into NEV production by government policies targeting carbon neutrality while strategic alliances with Chinese companies may yield facilitated access to BRI projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Toward the end of the 1960s, the car industry in Japan was reaching its maturity, and it seemed increasingly certain that Japan's future was firmly linked to cars. At the 16th and 17th Tokyo Motor Shows, in 1969 and 1970, an unprecedented number of show cars made by Japanese car manufacturers were introduced. At these shows, Toyota introduced a series of show cars, the EX-I, EX-II, EX-III, and EX-7, as well as the Commuter. The end of the 1960s was not just a turning point for the Japanese car industry but also for Japanese society as a whole. Through rapid (re)modernization, the country had attained economic wealth and power, but the consequences of modernization were becoming increasingly devastating. The anticipated and endorsed future was under revision when the news about pollution and political turmoil reached the nation's media. Focusing on Toyota Motors, this article examines early Japanese "show cars" by approaching them from the viewpoint of the anticipated but complex and uncertain future at the turn of the 1960s to the 1970s. The purpose of this article is to analyze and summarize the future vision(s) of Toyota by applying a close analysis of the design objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been several studies focused on improving the efficiency of internal combustion engines using various techniques such as better design, better materials, and regenerative technologies. Recently, in 2016, Toyota reported 40% gas engine efficiency with their Prius model; however, there remains a lot more room for improvement towards the theoretical maximum value of 73% using the Carnot theorem. In this research, we present a freshly designed valvetrain that has the potential to improve the efficiency of a known conventional valve designed engine. The goal of this research was to prove the feasibility and significance of the new valve design. This research developed a simulation model of the new valve design and produced its physical property data. The data of the new design were compared to the conventional poppet valve design with respect to several parameters to discuss its working principle and advantages over the conventional valve mechanism. Modeling was performed using Python programming to predict the valve-opening mechanism. The design of experiments was setup to control and tune different parameters accordingly within the reasonable range of engine speed, viz., 1000–6000 rpm to simulate various working conditions. The maximum opening area for the rotary valve is calculated to be 0.795 sq.in which is smaller than the poppet valve's area of 1.315 sq.in. However, under an example of 2900 rpm, the rotary valve was able to remain fully opened with constant efficiency of about 54% from 40 to 160 degrees of the crankshaft angle. While the poppet valve can achieve 88% efficiency at 90 degrees of the crankshaft angle and the efficiency significantly drops on either side of the maxima, the authors believe that this research would help explore improvements in the performance of a combustion cycle due to the novel rotary valve design that is investigated in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Battery aging is a complex phenomenon, and precise state of health (SoH) monitoring is essential for effective battery management. This paper presents a data-driven method for SoH estimation based on support vector regression (SVR), utilizing features built from both full and partial discharge capacity curves, as well as battery temperature data. It provides an in-depth discussion of the novel features constructed from different voltage intervals. Moreover, three combinations of features were analyzed, demonstrating how their efficacy changes across different voltage ranges. Successful results were obtained using the full discharge capacity curves, built from the full interval of 2 to 3.4 V and achieving a mean R2 value of 0.962 for the test set, thus showcasing the adequacy of the selected SVR strategy. Finally, the features constructed from the full voltage range were compared with ones built from 10 small voltage ranges. Similar success was observed, evidenced by a mean R2 value ranging between 0.939 and 0.973 across different voltage ranges. This indicates the practical applicability of the developed models in real-world scenarios. The tuning and evaluation of the proposed models were carried out using a substantial dataset created by Toyota, consisting of 124 lithium iron phosphate batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In studies on buyer-supplier relationships, interdependence is a commonly used keyword; however, its definition and measurement items have not received much attention. By reviewing the literature, this study found two streams in studies associated with interdependence, with each stream having certain commonalities in its measurement items. In the power-related context based on Resource Dependence Theory by (1) Pfeffer and Salancik (1978), it tends to use the percentage of sales accounted for by the trading partner, the substitutability of trading partners, and the switching cost, whereas in the task-related context based on (2) Thompson's (1967) technology, dependence on the traded input and output is often used as measurement items for interdependence. In fact, both logics are implemented in Toyota Motor Corporation's supplier management, using multiple suppliers to avoid resource dependence while some parts are determined by technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyze the factors that influence loyalty in the automotive industry. The population of this study are car owners who live in Jabotabek . Using two types of questionnaires, namely the screening questionnaire and the main questionnaire consisting of 27 indicators. Probability sampling was used in determining the sample so that 135 samples were obtained which were dominated by Toyota and Honda brand users with the MVP segment. Factor analysis was carried out using the SEM (structural equation model) method with Smart PLS software and tested the validity, Cronbach's Alpha reliability test and goodness of fit to test the structural model. The results showed that among the 3 variables, namely brand image, product and staff, only brand image proved to have a positive and significant effect on loyalty (50.1%), while the product and staff variables had no significant effect. With the results of this study, it is hoped that ATPM can maintain the loyalty of their customers by continuing to improve their brand image by paying attention to 7 indicators, namely reliable, advanced, challenging, creative, sophisticated, luxury and sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]