Just-in-time auto industry news and analysis
Toyota president Akio Toyoda has assembled an all-star cast to run Toyota’s new electric car division, and put himself in charge of it, the company said today in an innocuous-looking change of personnel note.
As a sign of the importance of the new venture, Toyota’s EV department is headed by three of Toyota’s top managers. Akio Toyoda is joined by Toyota EVPs and board members Mitsuhisa Kato and Shigeki Terashi, both central figures in Toyota’s high tech research and development.
If you ask yourself how automakers will monetize the data collected from their cars once they are connected, all you need to do is listen to Nissan’s global after-sales chief Kent O’Hara. Connectivity “will allow us to retain more service customers at our dealership network,” O’Hara said today in Yokohama. It is a well-kept secret in the automotive business that car service is a major profit source for automakers, and even more so for car dealers. Electronically connected with the customer through the life of the car, automakers plan to grab a much bigger share of that lucrative business, leading to disruption of independent service chains, and 3rd party parts suppliers.
With only two laps to go in the race for the title of World’s Largest Automaker, Volkswagen squeezed ahead of Toyota by just 9,000 units in year-to-date deliveries, data released by the companies show. Separated by a rounding error, the two global auto giants are in a neck-on-neck battle that promises to be thrilling through the last round.
China is putting a gun to the heads of its automakers. “By 2018,” the Wall Street Journal reported today, electric vehicles “must account for 8% of the maker’s production, and the percentage will rise from there.” Before the news are tweeted around the world, please note that the Journal is a bit ahead of its times. Currently, the rules are still in draft form, and a lot can change before the final regs are handed down. One thing is clear however: China’s government is forcing the electrification of its own auto industry, and quite literally so, as the bulk of China’s auto manufacturers are state-owned, in one way or the other. Message from Beijing: Make electric cars, or die. “Chinese state media has trumpeted the regulations as essentially barring car makers that don’t have new-energy capabilities,” the Wall Street Journal wrote.
