Honda says the lithium-ion batteries allow a 6km range and a top speed of 6km/h

Honda thinks it might have found itself another new revenue stream: personal mobility devices.

The UNI-CUB, which the company has just unveiled in Japan as a working prototype, could soon be the right product at the right time. Vehicle sales might be booming just now but that's due to government incentives designed to reverse last year's collapse, so the market is expected to resume its long term decline later this year. In short, Japan has minimal immigration and is greying at a far quicker rate than equivalent rich countries, while people have been having fewer children for decades.

The interesting thing about the video which demonstrates the UNI-CUB is the absence of what seems the obvious target audience: the less mobile and by implication, a large percentage of older people.

Opel Adam prototype

The wait is over and there was truth in the rumour: both Opel and Vauxhall versions of the Junior small car project are to be called 'Adam'.

The Adam won't be seen in the metal until the Paris show in late September, with LHD cars reaching showroooms across Europe just in time for Christmas. The Vauxhall Adam plus Ireland's Opel model will follow in early 2013.

The announcement of this new model's name also sees us publishing our first list of cars making a global debut at Paris. You can find it here.

Germany's Autobild says it has learned the name of Opel's forthcoming Mini rival: Adam.

Using the founder's first name to mark the company's 150th anniversary makes sense for Opel, but surely there will be a different model name for the Vauxhall variant? Dave Leggett, who's just read this blog, suggests 'Eve'.

Opel and Vauxhall were set to announce the car's name(s?) on 8th May - so far there has been no official confirmation or denial of Autobild's claim.

The second press day of the Beijing motor show is under way and our round-up of new vehicle premieres now stretches to over 100. But what are their codenames, which ones will be built, and when, not to mention on what platforms, and in which plants?

I devote a large part of most working days to tracking down, checking and cross-checking information for future vehicle programmes. Then I update PLDB, just-auto's global database of current and future vehicles. There's currently over 1,500 models listed there, so if you're interested in what's ahead (out to 2025) for China-built cars and light trucks, you can take a free demo tour.

As well as spending lots of time updating all the future models coming for the Chinese market, I've also been adding loads of information about 2013 model year vehicles for the US market in recent weeks - the fact that you can search the database by such criteria makes it easy to find you're looking for.

The TRIXX was a concept at the 2004 Geneva show

Its launch at the Paris motor show might be over five months away, but Opel and Vauxhall are set to announce the model name for Project GM4403.

A source at Vauxhall has told me that Tuesday 8th May is the date when all will be revealed. Will it be 'Junior'? Will it be 'Allegra'? Or might it even be 'TRIXX'?

I recently spoke to Rita Forst, Opel-Vauxhall's head of Engineering, and pressed her for details about the Junior project. If you missed the interview, you'll find it here.

The combination of the ongoing economic downturn and a crippling truckers' strike in its home market saw Fiat outsold across Europe last month by Nissan.

The numbers, which were issued by ACEA earlier on 17th April, list combined sales for 25 EU and three EFTA markets. In a market down 6.6% year on year, Volkswagen Group saw its share rise by 1.7%, meaning that it finished the month with 23.7% of all passenger vehicle sales in Europe. That's more than double what the traditional number two, PSA, managed (11.9%, down 19.2%).

Volkswagen was of course greatly helped by the ongoing expansion of the German market. The BMW (73,899) and Mercedes-Benz (65,814) brands also saw their sales up last month at a regional level, to such an extent that they also surpassed the total for Fiat-badged vehicles (58,480). In March 2011, Fiat's total was 80,174, putting it 10,000 and 20,000 units ahead of BMW and Benz respectively. This time last year, Fiat was also some 20,000 units ahead of Nissan. But last month, Nissan's 62,860 registrations placed it ahead of its Italian rival.

To give those totals some perspective, Nissan sales in March were behind, in this order: VW, Ford, Opel-Vauxhall, Renault, Peugeot, Hyundai-Kia, Audi, Citroen, BMW, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz.

The misery for Fiat might be painful but there is one other major manufacturer doing worse. Believe it or not, Honda Europe found itself outsold last month by Jaguar Land Rover. Honda's 23% YoY drop to only 19,924 registrations in March versus a 27% surge to 21,321 sales for JLR was enough to push the Japanese manufacturer's yearly total (a mere 36,797) behind that for Jaguar Land Rover (38,285). Consider also that Mazda, with no production base in the region, is some 2,000 units ahead of Honda. Let's hope for the future of workers at its plants in Turkey and England that the new Civic can begin to turn things around for Honda.

Dave Leggett also has some thoughts on the ACEA numbers, so do have a look at his words too. You'll find them here.

Autumn evenings aren't quite as they are in England

A friend's new Lexus GS has proved to be a great car for Sydney's infamously awful roads. But the smooth ride isn't the thing that matters most about this vehicle.

The first new-shape GS I'd seen in Europe was a GS 450h making its global debut at the Geneva show earlier this month, but down here, the GS 350 is already on sale. Australia, incidentally, was no exception for the old car - it sold poorly here too. I think the local importer has a fair chance of success with the new model, though - the ride is first class and the handling is also pretty good. OK, it's no 5 Series, but unlike the former GS, this one isn't a long way behind.

The new GS might not be a true sports sedan but for me, what's far more important is a particular safety feature on this car. A tiny camera is mounted just below the instruments and it watches the driver's eyes. Should you shut them for a second or two, the result is a short and sharp automatic stab on the brakes - enough to jolt you awake, Toyota claims.

Last Friday I was six cars behind a head-on fatality on the Castlereagh Highway three hours' drive from Sydney. It was a pretty sobering sight seeing what remained of a car a few hundred metres ahead of me under a truck that had been coming in the other direction. Was tiredness the cause? I don't know but it could well have been as there were many long and boring stretches on that narrow rural road. Whatever the reason, I for one hope to see sophisticated anti-fatigue systems such as the one in the new Lexus GS becoming far more commonplace.

THIS is how we roll

There is always something new to see. I have just thrilled to witnessing a cleaner dismount an electric trike and use barbeque tongs to pick up a cigarette butt from the spotlessly polished marble floor here at Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok airport.

As I'm on my way down to Sydney I was minded to tell him about the existence of the extra-long ones that everyone has there (and which I brought back to England a few trips ago for my own backyard BBQs). With a pair of these he wouldn't need to stop and climb off to collect the stubs: he could just slow his machine slightly, lean down and snap up the offending fag ends quick smart. Maybe I'll get some and present them to him on my way back as a thank you for posing?

Every taxi in that airport rank is a Toyota Crown

A stop over in Hong Kong provides a great opportunity for car spotting. But where are all the Chinese brand models?

Despite countless trips between London and Sydney, this is my first visit to Hong Kong. Last time my halfway stayover was Incheon/Seoul and before that it's been Johannesburg, Singapore, Tokyo or Kansei/Osaka, but I'm pleased to discover 'Hong China China' as the postcards term it, has proved to be just the ticket for a restful break on the long journey to the land down under.

Me being geeky me, I can report that I already knew that Crown Motors, Toyota's partner in Hong Kong, is the local market's long time number one player. The rows and rows of Toyota Crown Comfort taxis attest to that too, as do the Alphard and Vellfire minivans which act as shuttles for the hotel where I am staying.

Perhaps surprisingly, there are relatively few Chinese brand cars on the roads. It's the money of course - Hong Kong has always been one of those markets where premium brands sell extremely well, with Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW and Lexus, as well as Volkswagen all highly successful here despite the huge import taxes. Lexus, in fact, set a sales record in 2011, with a combined total of 7,800 Toyota and Lexus sales last year, a YoY rise of 13 percent, Crown Motors claims.

And what of the British legacy? Well, it's been almost a decade and a half now since Prince Charles and former governor Chris Patten set sail out of HK harbour, let's not forget. So apart from the same electrical sockets in my hotel room as I have at home, and the sight of a fair few Range Rover Sports cruising about - number plates use the Roman alphabet and the white front/yellow rear British system - this feels firmly like Asia, not an outpost of Empire. Meanwhile, US English has become the default standard for signs, I notice.

I now regret not booking to stay longer in Hong Kong, particularly when, from where I am sitting using the wifi at a cafe within Chek Lap Kok airport, I can see signs which wish to entice me towards 'Transport to Mainland China': Shenzen, for example, is more or less just across the water from here.

I enquired earlier at one of the special kiosks which organises visitor visas for China to see if I could zip over, have a look around, and be back for this evening's flight. Alas I must wait half a day for the paperwork to be processed, plus the fee is a steep HKD 1,500 (150 euro). I'll be returning here in a few weeks' time, so perhaps I'll venture across then.

Sad to say I couldn't snap a decent panorama photo to accompany this blog - flying in yesterday the city and its mountainous backdrop looked magnificent, but today there is a heat haze shrouding the airport and nearby Lantau Island, which is sadly also masking the nearby New Territories and Mainland China. Still, warm weather is most welcome after the long English winter. Let's hope the temperature in Sydney is as welcome as the 30 celsius of Hong Kong when I land down there tomorrow morning.

The Lodgy had its world premiere at the recent Geneva motor show

Dacia looks set to continue its sales surge across Europe with aggressive pricing for its new Lodgy MPV.

The base variant of this Chevrolet Orlando-sized minivan starts at only EUR 9,900 in France, the Renault division has just revealed. The Lodgy, which is the first product to be built at Renault's new Tangiers plant in Morocco, goes on sale across Europe later this month.

I had been expected Renault to reveal low pricing for this new model, and some readers might have heard me mention it earlier this week in our Geneva show review webinar, but a sub-ten grand base price is really going to shake things up in this segment.

You do have to wonder just might happen to sales of the now suddenly very pricey Renault Mégane Scénic & Mégane Grand Scénic, not to mention the Peugeot 5008, Citroën C4 Picasso and C4 Grand Picasso.

We really do live in interesting times when these kinds of pricing tactics are put into play to entice buyers back into the new car market in some countries. I also now find myself wondering if we are witnessing the first moves towards North Africa becoming an eventual major new regional source of low-cost vehicle manufacturing.