Have car, will travel. Japanese carmakers, efficient manufacturers whose fortunes have been ravaged by slumping demand, are taking to the road in pursuit of handouts. Nissan has become the first company to tap the US government’s $1,000bn loan financing programme. It plans to sell $1.5bn of bonds backed by car loans. Top-ranked Toyota Motor and the smaller Mazda are availing themselves of government loans at home.

No surprise. More conventional methods of raising cash, say from banks or capital markets or even by selling cars, are getting tougher. Red ink and elevated financing costs put more stress on replenishing funds as carmakers rip through their cash reserves. Nissan’s $5.8bn kitty a year ago had shrunk to $4.7bn by the end of December and could dip below $4bn by the end of this month – the equivalent of barely two or three weeks’ revenues. Toyota, which recently lost its hallowed triple A rating, has also been raiding the glovebox. The company had liquid assets (including time deposits and marketable debt securities) in excess of $40bn at the end of March last year. It does not disclose numbers on a quarterly basis, but analysts estimate this could have halved by the end of this month, implying cash outflows of about $10bn apiece this quarter and the last.