Tokyo Motor Show: PreviewThe Tokyo motor show, which begins today, has a plethora of new metal - particularly in the concept area - but is also showing a distinct green tinge, writes Michael McAleer, Motoring Editor, in Tokyo
The great, the good and the outright quirky in the world of motoring will be revealed today at the Tokyo motor show, which will mark a celebration of the growing success of the local brands on the international stage, while hopefully dealing with some of the serious challenges they face.
Virtually every Japanese brand has something to cheer about abroad, in particular the likes of Toyota, which has grown to a global car giant in recent years. Similarly Mazda continues to turn in very healthy profits and growth with its new zoom-zoom strategy.
However, there are challenges. Toyota has suffered from recalls this year, its senior management in the US have jumped ship and there is the inherent threat of a backlash from the US brands against foreign dominance in their market.
General Motors outsold Toyota in the first nine months of the year, regaining its position as the world's largest carmaker in what has become a close race between the two rivals.
There are also longer-term threats for all the brands, such as the rise of Chinese car firms. While it will take some time for them to crack the established markets of Europe and the US, the speed with which they are catching up on the incumbents has taken many by surprise. With a large and voracious home car market, they have a solid foundation upon which to develop and expand into the export markets.
Then there are the Korean brands, such as Hyundai and Kia. These two have modelled their expansion on the Japanese conquest of foreign markets, albeit with a tighter time frame.
So far they have recorded dramatic growth, although recent court cases over bribery involving the family in charge of both brands has upset the smooth growth.
The show, which opens today, will see a total of 71 new vehicles, some concepts and others ready for sale.
The big story at Tokyo - as always - will be the concept cars. While there will be several first showings of Japanese production cars - such as the new Subaru Impreza WRX Sti and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X - the real stars are the indicators of future production models.
There was a hope that Lexus would reveal a production version of the LF-A sports car, but that looks unlikely now.
To make up for it, however, the show will have a concept version of Honda's next generation NSX and the Taiki concept car from Mazda that hints at the next RX-8 replacement. Not to be outdone, several European manufacturers will use the show to reveal concepts, such as Audi, which will show its new supermini model to rival the likes of Mini.
Aside from the new metal, the green issue will remain top of the agenda, with hybrid and hydrogen the big environmental features at the show.
Toyota is expanding its hybrid activity, while introducing its latest hydrogen developments. Honda is busy developing its FCX concept for limited production in hydrogen format, while Mazda has expanded its efforts with the current RX-8 hydrogen prototype already under test by several Japanese government departments, and the launch of a Premacy hydrogen model for test next year.
ATTENTION ON NEW CARS COULD not come at a better time for the Japanese firms, particularly in their home markets.
While the Japanese car industry is enjoying healthy growth on the back of sales overseas, the home market has been shrinking.
Earlier this month, the Japanese car industry released figures showing car sales, excluding minicars, dropped 1.9 per cent in August from a year earlier to 227,737 units, the 26th consecutive month of falling sales and the lowest result for August since 1986.