16 November, 2023
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Against a backdrop of motor shows trying to be anything but traditional motor shows (Munich, we’re looking at you), there was something quite refreshing about an exhibition centre packed with cars on rotundas.
This wasn’t the only way in which the Tokyo motor show — now renamed the Japan Mobility Show lest it be left behind in the “mobility revolution” — harked back to the days of yore.
There was a veritable orgy of new concept cars to wrap our heads around, and they provided a rich subtext to the state of the Japanese industry that we’ve tried to tease out in this new episode.
Here are the main themes we discussed:
Speaking quietly
By far and away the most compelling products on show were those that were born from the very soul of the company that presented them.
Toyota’s IMV 0 was a less-is-more revision of the pick-up that was all the more impactful — and insightful — for what it left out, rather than what it added in. It was design for hyper-efficient manufacturing at its very best.
Mazda’s Iconic SP spoke with the quiet self-assuredness of a brand that knows its place in the market, a brand that isn’t out to please everyone. As a result, Mazda’s perhaps the only mainstream brand that’s well-positioned to deliver consistently good design.
And Honda’s Motocompacto seemed to represent the first tentative steps of a brand that might just rediscover itself in time to make micromobility hay. The opportunity to create the icons of micromobility is there for Honda, if only they can grasp it.
Shouting loudly
That Japanese manufacturers have missed the bus on the most significant shift that the automotive industry has seen is no secret. Only ±1% of Toyota’s 11-plus million cars in 2023 will be EV.
But they’re under threat in other ways, too. China will overtake Japan as the world’s largest exporter of cars. Japan will loose it’s place as the world’s third largest economy to Germany. And the Toyota Production system, which has informed the way everybody else makes cars, is being upended by developments like gigacasting.
Seen through this frame, putting on a good show in Tokyo might be just as much a question of national pride as it is a question of pride for the individual manufacturers.
It’s a perspective that might help make sense of the sheer volume of show cars that Toyota had on display, and the screeching visual dissonance of Nissan’s five hyper offerings.
Here were two brands that seemed to be shouting “Hey! We’re still here! We’re still cool! We’re still relevant!” while everyone was hoping for more substantive evidence of real change. That Nissan’s cars were part of a tie up with the game Fortnite reinforced the sense of a brand scrabbling to find its place in contemporary culture.
A question of legacy
It was so disheartening to see Honda’s new Prelude. Here’s a nameplate that, historically, was beloved equally by those of an engineering bent, and those who simply desired an affordable, stylish, and distinctive coupe.
What brought those two crowds togather was Honda’s ability to package and engineer a car like no other. As Joe points out, Clay Dean, formerly Design Director of Cadillac, once said that if he could wave a magic wand and have anything, it would be Honda’s packaging.
Once scalpel-like from the outside and glasshouse-like from the inside — thanks to a low cowl height (the height of the base of the front windscreen from the road) — this new car misses any of that sense of lightness or litheness or elegance.
So it won’t come as a surprise that Mazda’s Iconic SP truly delighted us. No, it’s not playing to the EV zeitgeist. And no, it doesn’t do anything new.
But as we enter, perhaps, an era of decline for the automotive industry, the brands and the products that, perhaps, will have the greatest impact are those that remain true to their roots and resign themselves to a gradual but glorious exit.
The micromobility opportunity
Of any car-making nation, it feels like the opportunity to take the lead in the expansion of micromobility is Japan’s.
With its history of miniaturisation and manufacturing efficiency, and the wealth of concepts companies like Toyota, Honda and Suzuki have produced over the years, the potential is clear.
But as Horace Dediu pointed out in our interview with him, while a company like Honda might get micromobility conceptually, actually executing on this world-changing idea is another thing all together.
If Japanese manufacturers can commit, however, there’s the chance to show cultural leadership in a way that the industry hasn’t seen since the Toyota Prius turned up on the red carpet at the Oscars.
As ever, we’d love to get your feedback:
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