I was scouring the web over the past several days, as per usual, checking out the latest automotive news. A headline stuck out to me stemming from our friends in the UK.
"Is time running out for Japan's car industry?"
Ridiculous, I thought. Honda and Toyota are two major entities that are crushing it in terms of delivering products that are moving out of showrooms. I had to click to learn more. So, I did.
Turns out there's a little twist here, folks. After reading the first two paragraphs — inserted below — you'll understand. You see, while Japan still is a dominant force it is still lacking in terms of delivering innovation.
While an unnamed executive is quoted as saying you have to go back to the 80s to find something, I refute that. The Toyota Prius was a game changer. Today? Not so much.
From there, Autocar's piece goes into quite extensive detail as it backs up its thesis.
Simply put, I wanted to ask you, the Spies:
Do YOU think this is FAKE news or FACTS? Has the Japanese automotive industry LOST its mojo?"When was the last time anything came out of Japan that was truly, globally innovative?” It was an unusual question for an executive at the very top of a Tokyo-based car maker to be asking a journalist, brow furrowed and eyes glistening with frustration at the point he was making. “You need to go back to the 1980s at least. Everything since then has been about refinement.”
These were comments born of frustration, the words of someone who had been held to task for the ever-decreasing benefits of, as he put it, “squeezing the same lemon for more juice”. Golden years had turned to steady years and now – through the lens of a rapidly changing automotive world – he was sat staring at what he summarised as little more than a trickle of opportunity...
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