Business Week reports that Toyota are planning to capture 10% of the Indian market. “India will play a pivotal role in Toyota’s global expansion plans,” Vice Chairman Kazuo Okamoto said today at the Delhi Auto Show. “The time has come for us to strategically accelerate our growth here.” Toyota is using the Delhi Auto show to showcase the cars which will lead the assault for 10% of the Indian market, the most important of which is Toyota Etios (which will also be produced in Brazil). Autocar.co.uk reports that Etios is 90% production ready and that it will go on sale in India at the end of 2010 (with first-year sales projected at 70k units). Because of the price (around $10000) it’ll go head to head with the Maruti Swift, the very boys who hold a huge chunk of the Indian car market. To help combat Maruti, a larger and better quality interior is key to the Etios. Autocar also reports that in order to keep costs under control, Toyota went on a cost cutting exercise. Measures taken include, limited sound proofing, a hard, but durable, interior and one windscreen wiper. But before you cry “Toyota are turning into GM”, don’t be fooled. Toyota tried the same thing with the Aygo in Europe and the end result was a good car which sells very well.
Tag: Toyota
Why should I want to be Toyota? They’re losing billions.
Today’s Quote Of The Day comes from the executive of a certain up-and-coming automaker with dreams of becoming a global player. Think you know who it is? Here’s a hint: it’s not Ed Whitacre.
First, they sold the most amount of cars in the world, then, they started cost cutting and now, Toyota are taking another big step towards becoming GM. The Charleston Daily Mail reports that the managers of Toyota’s manufacturing plant in Buffalo, West Virginia have allowed workers to distribute union literature during breaks at the plant. There’d been grumblings about unionisation for some time. Last month, some Toyota employees, (with the backing of the UAW, naturally), filed a grievance with the National Labour Relations Board’s regional office in Cincinnati. They wanted to distribute union material but were stopped by Toyota managers. Jeff Moore, a Toyota vice president at the West Virginia plant, reversed that policy.
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The Christmas season would be a reason to be merry, would it not be for Hugo Chavez. More details about his expropriation threats emerge. Turns out, Chavez did not just threaten to kick out Toyota for being lackadaisical in the production of “rustic” vehicles.
“President Hugo Chavez told foreign automakers Wednesday to share their technology with local businesses or they will be told to leave the country,” writes the Boston Globe. Chavez gave the ultimatum in wholesale fashion to Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Fiat. Implied, the ultimatum is also meant for Fiat-controlled Chrysler, for Mitsubishi, Mack and Fiat-owned Iveco. All of the above have production facilities in Venezuela. All are at risk of instant deportation.
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Venezuela’s, well, President Hugo Chavez took a page out of the U.S. government’s playbook, and ordered Toyota’s local assembly plant to make more cars, pronto. If the Japanese don’t produce an adequate number of vehicles designed for rural areas, Chavez will expropriate Toyota and kick them out of Venezuela.
According to this morning’s indignant Nikkei [sub,] Chavez said his socialist government is going to apply strict quotas on the number and types of vehicles firms can produce. He ordered an immediate inspection of Toyota’s facilities to see how many “rustic vehicles” they are currently producing. (“Rustic,” not “rusty.”)
“They’ll have to fulfill (the quotas), and if not, they can get out,” said Chavez during a televised address. “We’ll bring in another company.” And what company would that be?
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Unbeknownst to many, Toyota and Volkswagen had been pretty tight in Japan. Japanese Toyota dealers started selling VWs in 1992. Last year, about half of the 45,522 VWs sold in Japan moved through the shared dealer organization. This helped Volkswagen become Japan’s top import brand for nine years. (Which says a lot about Japan’s import market.) Not only did they share the dealers, Toyota actually has been the distributor for half of the VeeDubs sold in the Land of the Rising Sun. Can’t make stuff like this up.
Now, Volkswagen and Toyota signed the green form (nippophiles know that the green form is for divorce, brown is for marriage.)
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Parts suppliers in Japan had near death experiences when they opened their Nikkei [sub] this morning. Parts suppliers in China and the rest of the world suffered heart and respiratory problems when the news of Toyota’s latest plan hit the news-wires.
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Toyota Motor North America announced the retirement today of group vice president of Americas strategic research and planning and corporate communications Steve Sturm, group vice president of strategic and product planning Dave Danzer and group vice president for environmental and public affairs Irv Miller. Toyota did not announce replacements for the three VPs, and wouldn’t even tell Automotive News [sub] their ages, saying simply that they were “of retirement age.”
On October the 26th, 2009, Mr E. Niedermeyer asked the best and brightest whether Mazda can catch up on hybrid technologies. If you were a betting person, you’d have probably said no. Partly because Ford had divested a huge chunk of Mazda, which meant they took their hybrid system with them, but mainly because Mazda had no aspirations towards hybrids. It was more interested in lighter materials and stop/start systems. So, can Mazda catch up on hybrid powertrains? Well, the answer, to paraphrase a certain President, is yes they can and Mazda are going straight to the people who know this technology best. Asiaone.com reports that Toyota and Mazda have reached an agreement in which Toyota will sell Mazda key components in which they can build a hybrid car.
New Aston Martins don’t come around every day. When they do, the entire automotive world holds its breath and watches as a new legend is born. Such a moment has arrived… Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on the Aston Martin Lagonda DB1.8 Gosling Vantage (courtesy: Vincent Maltese). Coming soon.
The Aston Martin Cygnet: because the auto industry just isn’t surreal enough these days. For its next trick, the Aston Martin grille will be appearing on a Corolla. Is there a photoshopper in the house?
Toyota is teasing this “dedicated hybrid concept vehicle” set to be fully unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show.
Now that Nissan have their Leaf EV in the works, Mitsubishi have the iMiEV in development and GM are rushing out the Chevrolet Volt, Toyota seem to be feeling a little unarmed in the next stage of green motoring. The NY Times updates us on Toyota’s plans to sell plug in hybrids in about 2 years quoting Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota Executive Vice President, as saying “Toyota believes that plug-in hybrids are a realistic solution among vehicles using electricity.” Funny, because not long ago Toyota had a different stance on electrification. In any case, Toyota remains highly conservative in its approach to electric vehicles. In preparation for a mass market launch, Toyota are leasing and renting 600 plug-in hybrids: 230 for Japan, 200 for Europe, 20 for other countries and 150 for the United States. This will provide Toyota with much needed feedback on how to improve the vehicles, a process GM plans on doing with its Volt contemporaneously with its California consumer rollout.
The Scion xD is known in Europe as the “Urban Cruiser,” and with an AWD option it’s sold as a quasi-SUV. According to a Euro NCAP crash test of comact cars though, the Urban Cruiser offers a lot less safety than you might expect in an SUV. NCAP’s latest round of compact testing saw vehicles from the new Opel Astra and Chevy Cruze to the Peugeot 308 and Mazda3 recording perfect five-star scores, indicating just how safe compact cars have become. And even the video of the Urban Cruiser’s three-star performance lacks the drama of earlier compact crash tests: a failure of side airbags and a weak performance in the new side pole crash caused the poor score. Most embarrassing of all, the Chevrolet Spark (neé Daewoo Matiz Creative) came in second to last, scoring four stars to the Urban Cruiser’s three.
Call it “a bid to retain green credentials”, call it “distractions to all the recalls,” Toyota are keen to let you know that they are targeting a 27% reduction in energy consumed per vehicle produced at their North American facilities. Environmentalleader.com reports that Toyota are using fiscal year 2002 as a baseline and Toyota hopes that by 2011, the goal of 27% will be achieved. The areas which Toyota are concentrating on are energy & climate change, recycling & reduced use of resources, substances of concern and air quality. Now here come the boring figures.
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