The Tokyo Motor Show is one of the five largest international auto shows in the world, so when UMW Toyota called to ask if we’d be interested to visit the show with them, the answer was quite obvious. Held bi-annually since 1954, the TMS is an important opportunity for Japanese automakers to demonstrate their answer to global economic difficulties that has hit the automotive industry particularly hard. It is also an important platform to launch a new breed of cars that don’t only tackle economic difficulties but answer environmental concerns as well.
But the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show wasn’t quite its usual self. Starting from the rather uninspiring theme – “Catch the News, Touch the Future” to the decline of participating companies. There was also a certain emptiness felt in the exhibition halls in the form of foreign automakers. This year’s show featured only two foreign participants in the passenger car sector; Lotus of Britain and German based tuner, Alpina. This is a drop from 26 companies at the previous show in 2007.
The drop of foreign participants could be pinned to the increasing presence of the Chinese auto market as automakers move to shift their focus of business to China. Automakers like General Motors and Volkswagen took part in an international auto show in Shanghai this past April, choosing to skip Tokyo. But it’s not only the foreign players who stayed away; the total number of participating companies that include local Japanese companies has been the fewest since the inception of the show in the 50s.
But organizers stress that the importance of the show lays not in the number of participants but rather on cutting-edge technology and brand-new products from major manufacturers. And that’s exactly what the show was about.
Japanese consumers have a heightened understanding of preserving the environment and choose less energy-consuming and recyclable products and the automobile market is no exception. The Toyota Prius Hybrid continues to top sales charts as Japanese consumers choose to opt for more environmentally friendly vehicles. But Japanese car manufacturers do not share the same strategies towards creating alternative power, some focus on hybrid vehicles while others focus on electric vehicles.
Here in the next few posts we visit the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show and the participants, their products and their approach to alternative power.
