A senior executive of Toyota Motor said Wednesday there was little threat of a backlash against his company even as it beats US automakers in their home market.
While there was a time when Americans considered Japanese cars a threat, “that's kind of going by the way side,” Jim Lentz, the top American executive at Toyota Motors Sales USA, told AFP.
Ten years ago, about 40 percent of Americans said they would never buy an “import” car, Lentz said.
That number has shrunk to less than 20 percent today, and will probably shrink further, he said.
Local media have bemoaned the fact that the Big Three US automakers slipped below 50 percent market share last month and that Toyota has overtaken Ford Motor Co. as the second largest seller in the United States, and General Motors Corp. as the biggest seller globally.
Toyota executives have been careful not to openly celebrate their victories as the Big Three — which also include Chrysler — struggle to downsize and compete in the face of a steady loss of market share.
Toyota launched an advertising campaign last year focusing on the contributions it makes to the US economy, and that has been a constant theme when the automaker's executives speak in public.
Lentz listed off the major investments Toyota has made in recent years in plants and engineering facilities and said that the “vast majority of what we sell is actually produced in North America.”
“I think a lot of people do understand that companies like Toyota, Nissan, and Honda are adding to the US economy,” Lentz told AFP in an interview at an automotive conference in Traverse City, Michigan.
“We are a part of the fabric of America today,” he said.
“And people vote with their pocket books. People still want quality and value and that's why they purchase Toyota products.”
The US market has tremendous growth potential, Lentz said, but further fragmentation can be expected as consumers demand more personalized vehicles.
While the market has been weakened this year by a credit crunch and weakness in the housing industry, Toyota forecasts that sales will grow at a rate of 100,000 units or more over the next decade, he said.
“Complexity in engine offerings is really what's going to drive the industry in the next few years,” he said.
“There's a re-urbanism taking place in the United States… and that's going to change the type of vehicle people need to drive.”
As downtown living becomes more popular, more consumers are going to demand smaller cars that are easier to park.
And as Americans spend less time commuting on freeways, hybrid engines will become more popular because of the fuel efficiencies they provide in stop-and-go traffic.
The shift towards smaller cars will not necessarily mean smaller profits, he said. The best-selling vehicles in urban markets are currently luxury small cars.
And the latest generation of consumers is willing to pay substantially more to add upgrades and options to their vehicles.
“It doesn't mean that we're going to abandon SUVs or abandon trucks because there's still a need for them and the baby boomers are still going to want a large percentage of those products, he said.
“But we, as an industry, are going to have to make sure we offer a broad variety of products.”
For the first time in history, there will soon be five different generations of Americans buying cars.
Offering a broad variety of products to meet the varying desires of these groups will change the way automakers build their vehicles, he said.
“It forces you to be a global manufacturer,” he said.
“Typically in the US if we sell 100,000 vehicles it gives us the efficiency to put a plant in the US with a vehicle like Yaris, where we aren't up to that yet, we have to source from somewhere else.”
