Boiling! Kei car wars

[messi69]

The background to Toyota's entry into the minicar market was the continued slump in domestic car sales. Even in that environment, the minicar market had been stable. While actual sales figures have not increased dramatically, they have remained at 1.6 to 2 million units per year for the 20 years since the collapse of the bubble economy. The proportion of minicars in the total market has increased as the number of registered car sales has decreased (see figure).

However, few people believe that the number will remain fixed at 60,000 units forever. It is reasonable to assume that Toyota's minicar sales will steadily increase.

One Toyota dealer said, "If customers say they want more, we have no choice but to increase the production."

The Great East Japan Earthquake is likely to remove background image overwhelmingly increase domestic demand for minicars. Furthermore, it is likely that the value of the minicar standard itself will increase, not just in terms of sales.

Going forward, not only will people's values ​​and lifestyles change in Japan, but manufacturing (production activities) will also have to change. We must maintain production activities while facing a chronic power shortage. Products that can be mass-produced with a small amount of energy will become the focus of manufacturing. Of course, this will mean high quality products, while continuing to develop technologies that add new value.

Instead of nuclear power generation, we will have to use energy sources with high costs such as fossil fuels and natural energy, and we will also be forced to minimize the increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. If CO2 emissions increase, we will have to purchase certified emissions (credits) from overseas, and domestic production will lose its cost competitiveness. Above all, we will have to continue manufacturing in the dilemma of increasing CO2 emissions as we switch to thermal power generation despite the electricity shortage.

For this reason, there is no doubt that light vehicles, which have high fuel efficiency while driving and use little energy during production, will be a future opportunity for Japan.