The Tokyo Motor Show is being kept alive by green technology

Tokyo .- The Tokyo Motor Show opened its doors officially today until November 4 to provide less news to know that in previous years, but with the hope of becoming a benchmark in eco-motoring.
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(AFP)

Evening party of the 'Land Glider' zero-emissions, the manufacturer Nissan Motor Corp., during the inauguration of the Tokyo Motor Show (Japan).

The city of Tokyo will enjoy its biennial motor, although since 2007 it has rained a lot in this market sector and the third in the world, loses bellows and is saved from the crisis of sales to government aid environmentally friendly vehicles.

Both foreign and Japanese journalists agree that the Tokyo Motor Show has lost prominence by failing to collect no more than two small foreign brands, Lotus and Caterham, something that did not happen for 45 years.

With half the space and participants than in 2007, many now agree that the Shanghai Motor Show has been enshrined as the main motor shows in Asia, while China, as recently said Toyota President Akio Toyoda, becomes the first world market.

The alternative offered by manufacturers Nipponese in this Tokyo Motor Show 2009 to their particular crisis are the most advanced prototypes in environmentally friendly engines, both hybrid and electric in a world increasingly concerned with reducing CO2 emissions.

Toyota, the world's largest manufacturer of automobiles, is confident his Prius to become a bestseller in other countries, as has been in Japan so far this year, proclaimed the best-selling model in the first half of 2009 and the car of the year.

For the father of the first mass marketed hybrid in the world and Toyota executive vice president, Takeshi Uchiyama, this system will be the basis on which new models will be built as Sai or sports sedan Lexus LF-C, presented in this 41st edition Motor Show.

Nissan expects, as demonstrated in the Hall with the Leaf, that the future in Japan, Europe and America will be for electric cars, after the demand for vehicles sank to the crisis and governments offer incentives for alternative plans "green".

Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi believe that electric vehicles are covered by the first world economies, awaiting the birth of sufficient infrastructure to be able to ride without fear of missing battery.

Japan is a country that holds the most promise to convert to electric, since the discounts on this type of propulsion can get to reduce the price by 35 percent.

Also, the growing concentration of population in cities and the increase in short trips, one of the reasons analysts envisaged as a cause of lower sales of conventional vehicles could go for the electric car.

As Uchiyamada himself said at the Motor Show, Toyota envisages the possibility of marketing electric vehicles from 2012 for short journeys.

However, plans to lower this and other technologies such as electric motor on the bet Nissan and Honda, are threatened by the yen appreciation and the economic crisis that have sunk the Japanese in the worst results of their history.

In full recovery, Toyota and Nissan has said they have plans to relocate part of their production from Japan to other plants abroad, while sales improved recent months to almost all Japanese automakers thanks to the Chinese market.

The improvement in quarterly results, much of the Japanese manufacturers are expected to file the next few days, was boosted by sales in emerging ahead of its traditional markets, where others like Hyundai have taken the lead.

As Uchiyamada himself acknowledged, environmentally friendly vehicles will be focused in Europe, America and Japan, while the bulk of its sales will be the traditional combustion engine to conquer the growing emerging markets and especially China, India and Brazil.