Here’s a statistic Toyota can’t be very happy with: More Toyotas are traded in for electric cars than any other brand, and it’s probably safe to assume all those people aren’t rushing out to buy the bZ4x. The biggest mark lately against the world’s largest automaker (maybe that’s VW this year; anyway, it’s close), especially for people who held it up as the “green” standard bearer after pioneering hybrids with the Prius, is that it’s been slow to move on EVs. Lately that seems to be changing, even if it won’t happen overnight, and the next step is ramping up American-made EVs and batteries for that sweet, sweet tax incentive cash.
Welcome to Friday, Autopians. That story leads us off today, along with some boardroom drama at the same company; another management shuffle at Infiniti; and some more developments about just how weird new car inventory is these days. Let’s finish the week strong.
Toyota Announces Kentucky-Made EV SUV With North Carolina Batteries
“Making up for lost ground.” That’s how the Detroit Free Press describes Toyota’s current position on the battlefield as it competes against the major investments Ford, General Motors and other competitors are making into batteries and electric vehicles.
You probably know the backstory by now: Toyota, the world’s biggest automaker, has historically been more skeptical of full-on battery EVs than many competitors for a variety of reasons. Those include concern over the technology’s viability in other markets—think Africa or South America, where its trucks reign supreme. (Not every country is Norway, right?) There’s also long been a belief within the company that a mixed approach, including hybrids and hydrogen, are better for reducing emissions long-term.
But at this point, it’s also a question of future-proofing Toyota and making sure that customers who desire EVs don’t decamp to other brands for good. Big investments into this space are finally coming. Incoming CEO Koji Sato recently announced a new, from-the-ground-up battery EV platform to underpin multiple vehicles.
This week, Toyota announced a new three-row electric crossover will be built in Kentucky—the same plant where it makes the Camry and RAV4—with batteries built in a new North Carolina factory. That car will then qualify for the full EV tax credits in America. The Freep’s story has more on what huge investments these are:
The automaker’s first U.S.-built three-row electric SUV will be assembled at Toyota Kentucky in Georgetown, Kentucky, about 5 miles north of Lexington, Toyota said. Toyota currently employs about 9,500 people at the 9-million-square-foot facility where it makes the Camry sedan, RAV 4 SUV, several engines and other parts. The new investment will retain jobs there, Toyota said.
The batteries for the EV will be made at a new battery plant that is currently under construction in Liberty, North Carolina, about 15 miles south of Greensboro. When it is done in 2025, the automaker said it expects it will employ 2,100 people. Toyota is investing the additional $2.1 billion in that battery plant to support the company’s drive toward carbon neutrality, it said. Toyota’s total investment in the facility, called Toyota North Carolina, is now $5.9 billion.
“It is exciting to see our largest U.S. plant, Toyota Kentucky, and our newest plant, Toyota North Carolina, drive us into the future together with BEV and battery production for our expanding electrified lineup,” said Ted Ogawa, CEO of Toyota Motor North America.
My takeaways here are just the obvious ones. First, it’s good to see such huge investments in American jobs; that was the goal of the EV provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, and by all objective accounts it seems to be working.
The next two to three years are when we’ll see most major automakers (that aren’t Tesla, which has been at this for a while) open their U.S. battery plants and deploy their new, connected, modern EV-specific platforms. But in Toyota’s case, by then competitors like GM, Hyundai, Tesla and Ford will have been doing at least some of that stuff for a while; GM says it wants to have 30 EVs for sale worldwide by 2025, for example, and wherever Hyundai takes its EV offerings in the next few years should be quite impressive. Toyota’s biggest risk might be being behind those other companies technologically.
I am confident that when Toyota throws more weight behind EVs that the cars will be legitimate, serious players in this space in ways that the bZ4x, with all its issues so far, has not been. But it’s going to have its work cut out here.
The electric MR2 could help. Just putting that out there, Toyota.
Shareholder Contention Over Akio Toyoda’s Chairmanship
With Sato moving into the CEO role, you’d think that a vote to re-elect former CEO and company scion Akio Toyoda as chairman would be a formality at best. Apparently, that’s not the case.
Reuters reports that a few large Toyota shareholders—including pension systems in New York and California—plan to vote against Toyoda’s appointment, in part over the above stuff on EVs but also over concerns over climate-related lobbying. The pension funds join several European organizations in doing so. (See more on the accusations related to Toyota lobbying here.)
Via Reuters:
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the Office of the New York City Comptroller both also voted for a resolution urging Toyota to improve disclosure of its lobbying on climate change, according to postings by the funds.
The details of the votes come after two leading proxy advisory firms last week raised issues about governance at the automaker. One of them, Glass Lewis, recommended shareholders vote against re-electing Toyoda, citing what it said was his responsibility for the lack of a sufficiently independent board.
The disclosures by the public pension systems with a record for activism underscored the pressure Toyota faces at its annual meeting on June 14 over board oversight and its choice to push electric vehicle (EV) alternatives, including hybrids like the Prius.
Toyota said on Friday it actively engages in dialogue with shareholders and investors, and considers the optimal board structure while receiving opinions and advice.
That story notes Ford and GM have also been urged by similar investors “to move rapidly toward electrification and to disclose more about their lobbying on vehicle standards.” I’d be thoroughly surprised if Toyoda’s re-election didn’t happen here, but all of this is yet another example of how more and more investors are flexing their muscles on climate issues.
Infiniti Gets A New Boss, Again
Infiniti, which as you may recall, is the ostensible “luxury brand” of Nissan, has another top boss in Jose Roman, the exec formerly in charge of Nissan in Mexico and Latin America. If you haven’t thought about Infiniti in a while—and really, who has?—here’s a recap of its leadership shuffles from Automotive News:
Roman succeeds Peyman Kargar, who left March 30 to return to Renault in France after a three-year assignment leading the brand since June 2020. Olga Filippova, general manager in charge of global sales and marketing, was appointed acting Infiniti head.
The management shuffle at Infiniti came just as Kargar was preparing for a wide-ranging brand reboot centered on the QX80 SUV to jump-start a new era of growth in the battery-electric era.
The fresh Infiniti road map, as described to Automotive News before Kargar’s departure, was to include a new look for Infiniti dealerships, a new design language across the lineup and a flurry of accents to impress customers, such as a unique Infiniti scent and signature sound.
The relaunch was scheduled to coincide with the introduction of the redesigned QX80 as the brand’s flagship. A close to production Monograph prototype is set to be unveiled this year.
It is unclear what the leadership change means for the latest brand strategy.
Kargar’s predecessor had that job for just three months, and the guy before that guy left to lead Jeep (which is a clear step up from Infiniti, I think we’d all agree.) The QX60 crossover is basically carrying the whole operation now, as is the huge and ancient QX80.
The story also includes this note about Infiniti during the Carlos Ghosn era of Nissan:
At one point, Ghosn’s plan called for Infiniti to be a pioneer in luxury electric vehicles, getting an EV based on the Nissan Leaf on sale in 2014. That never happened.
God, that’s all just very depressing!
New Car Inventory: Still Weird
Unless you want a Jeep Renegade and a few other stragglers, new car inventory is still bonkers thanks to pandemic-related supply chain issues. Automotive News, citing a report from data firm Cloud Theory, says pre-pandemic inventory levels may never return:
Inventory has climbed back toward 2 million in the last quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, but Rick Wainschel, Cloud Theory’s head of data science and analytics, does not expect the industry to get back to the pre-COVID inventory levels of 3 to 3.5 million
“I don’t think it’s going to go back to that level any time soon, if ever,” Wainschel said.
Parts procurement remains difficult for some manufacturers, but there is more to the story; many manufacturers realized during the pandemic that they did not need as much inventory as they had previously operated with and that it was sometimes more profitable to be tighter on supply, according to Wainschel.
Emphasis mine there because that’s exactly what happened. Automakers realized they can make way more money by limiting inventory and getting customers to just spend more. But that’s starting to bite them in the ass a bit, as even the Cloud Theory data chief notes:
Imbalanced trim mixes have put upward pressure on the average price of inventory, which has risen steadily since September 2022. The average marketed price of vehicles in April 2023 was more than $50,000 for the first time ever, according to Wainschel.
Meanwhile, the average turn rate slumped in the last quarter of 2022 and has remained below 60 percent in 2023, compared with more than 80 percent in the beginning of 2022.
“Part of that is a reflection of inventory going back up, but part of that is people being priced out of the market,” Wainschel said.
Wainschel expects to eventually see a new normal in which inventory hovers around 2 to 2.5 million, the trim mix begins to balance out and the turn rate is closer to 40 or 50 percent.
It turns out this business may not be able to run on $70,000 pickup trucks forever. Who knew?
Your Turn: You Are Now The Boss Of Infiniti
You’re out for a nice morning stroll when you feel something cling to your jacket and launch you high into the air. You barely have time to scream before you realize you’ve been whisked aboard a cargo plane via the Fulton surface-to-air recovery system. In the plane’s cargo hold, you find Carlos Ghosn in a flight suit.
“I couldn’t land the plane because I’ll be arrested immediately if my feet touch the ground,” Ghosn tells you. “But I’m here to tell you that you are the new boss of Infiniti.”
You are understandably baffled, and you ask why Ghosn is here on a Nissan matter; he says he still secretly consults from time to time. He hands you some paperwork to make your appointment official, shoves a parachute into your arms and kicks you out of his plane.
After landing in a pasture several hundred miles from your home, you make the long trek back and start forming a plan. You are now in charge of Infiniti.
What do you do?
So i’m the new boss of infinity?
Can i give it away?Would it be unethical to donate it to charity?
It sounds completely bonkers, unhinged to pursue hydrogen as an energy-bearer for personal cars and pickups. Given the challenges in transporting and storing this finicky gas and the fact that less than 30% of the source energy is able to power the wheels compared to 75% or more for battery electric cars should provide all the nails you need to seal this coffin. Yet, here we are. I suspect the Japanese automakers are so tied to the principle of refueling, or in some sort of cabal with the oil industry, they cannot refuse. I would not be surprised to se major mergers and bankruptcies among Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Nissan etc in the next 10 years
“You are now in charge of Infiniti. What do you do?”
1. Shutter the building.
2. Use the existing dealer network for another brand in the alliance and funnel the remaining cash into developing modern versions of the Nissan 240sx and “Little Hustler” pick up.
3. Drink too much saké at a Yokohama steakhouse and sing a karaoke duet of “Islands in the Stream” with Luca de Meo.
Until you can get some updated platforms in the pipeline, become the Japanese Dodge.
I guess they kind of did that with 400 Red Sport, but do that through the whole lineup. Make a $100k QX80 with 700 hp to compete against the Escalade V.
Take your Pathfinder rebadge, lower it a bit, slap the 400 Red Sport motor in there and make it a cheaper X5M alternative and faster than the RX500.
Make an Infiniti Titan. People apparently love spending $90k on a pickup truck. Give them an option. It couldn’t cost too much to develop.
And get a halo car. Someone already said use the Alpine A110 for something. I know there isn’t much to work with in the Nissan ecosystem (or Renault for that matter), but even a special edition GT-R or Z. Do something to get Infiniti in media other than the “Infiniti is still around?” articles.
Having previously owned a G35, I’d bring back the G and FX as hybrid sport luxury vehicles. Think what the RX500h is doing, but more performances oriented. Then build the brand focusing on a sportier rwd platform starting with SUVs, but also bringing back the G.
In charge of Infiniti? Give it the axe…seeing as how I skipped over the parts about them (or switch over (& get licensing) to make a 2023 AMC Eagle!- or AMX!- or Rambler!)
Well in times of low demand prices go up. And if you have a monopoly you can control inventory vs demand. However all it takes is one manufacturer to say screw it lets build a few more it wont hurt anything then boom goes the dynamite. If that doesnt happen you still need an agreement and agreed allocation. Yeah #1 might ve happy but #12? Also with that agreement you have collusion. Big bad SEC INVESTIGATIONS. ALSO Musk isnt likely to be dictated to he will go hell bent for leather to be #1 producer of all cars. He is building the plants to make cars and he will.
Now Toyota you also missed. Japan and Toyota are a pretty cultural agreement in Japan #1 Toyota #1. As they are #1 is it any surprise most cars turned in are Toyotas? I would be surprised if it were different, you thought Fiat maybe? Even still Toyota is unlikely to bow down for this stakeholder over shareholder crap. And most shareholders are Japanese. If these stakeholders decide sell those shares will drop in value to the seller but be picked up by investers recognizing a sweet deal if not the Japanese government would save its industry so if these investment companies sell low for a loss to push an agenda they lose customers money and surely in a lawsuit for failing to perform their fuduciary duty of looking after their investors best interest. AB might get away with it because the boycott was unexpected but now no kne can claim that because boom goes the dyn-o-mite.
As the new head of Infiniti, I’m taking the Alpine A110 from the Renault part of the alliance, getting it badged as an Infiniti and federalizing it for sale in the US. After I get mine, I resign.
And after you resign, you can collect your $20,000,000 golden parachute!
What a great gig right? Do a shitty job, get a huge payout just to pack your stuff and go.
May we all strive to be Bob Nardelli and swim around in your Scrooge McDuck pool of money leaving smoking husks of companies in your wake.
As the new head of Infiniti, my first order of business would be to stop production f all current models. I would immediately contact our dealers and tell them they now have two jobs; sell all those crappy SUVs as quickly as possible, then scour the local classifieds, salvage yards and customer garages for classic Datsun/Nissan automobiles.
All manufacturing plants would be converted to restoration facilities; each would restore a different model: Fairlady roadsters, Fairlady/240Zs, Bluebird/510 sedans & wagons, 520/620 pickups, etc., and, yes, even Nissan Leafs. Cars would be either restored as new, period appropriate (tastefully) modified, restomodded, or electrified, all with later Nissan parts & materials wherever possible.
Cars would be sold with a full new car warranty and certificate of authenticity. Dealers would be instructed to cater to every whim of the hordes of customers lined up around the block, each eager to trade suitcases full of cash for the Nissan of their dreams…????
You do know you have to keep a job for 90 days to collect unemployment?
Read this in the linked wiki on the Fulton recovery system:
I’d just take after the pig and attack Carlos.
I would be very kind to Infinity franchisees and allow them to terminate existing franchise agreements without penalties.
in addition, I would help them bundle their privately owned dealerships en mass to Hyundai/Kia as future Genesis retail points.
Genesis now outsells Infinity without standalone dealerships.
Genesis is on a roll.
I say this with a great deal of sadness as a past owner of an Infinity.
The VQ V-6 was (and still is) one of the great engines of all time.
The Japanese equivalent of a small block Chevrolet.
In a perverse way, Nissan committed economic malpractice against Infinity dealerships by failing to invest in the product line for decades.
I am very surprised Infinity dealers have not engaged in a class action lawsuit against Nissan for loss of value due to neglect.
I’d probably throw out the entire model line and build the Defender that JLR didn’t have the guts to do properly. Drop in the 5.6 V8 and use the 4xe PHEV setup. Interior to compete with G-wagon or better. Go for broke, no apologies… I don’t care, I’m getting fired in a year and I want to go out in a blaze of glory.
You’ll also get a golden parachute, not to be confused with the one Carlos gave you when he kicked you out of the plane.
Also, I would watch this movie.
I would definitely want any parachute I was using to be made of a lighter material than gold.
That would be a golden shower not golden parachute
yeah, put the Y60 patrol back into production!
1st step: Take the Aryia, tweak the design a bit, go HAM on the interior to make it incredibly luxurious and call it the Blue Bird
2nd step: Take the Q50 and drop in the 5.6 V8 and turn up the wick on it and call it the Skyline 560RS
For an industry that invented Just-In-Time, massive lot inventory seems crazy to me. It also gets more expensive each interest-rate hike.
This is exactly the reason automakers favor the dealer model, because it offloads the carrying costs of the inventory to the dealers, and lets them run their plants more efficiently regardless of sales conditions.
Statistically the job will only be mine for a few fleeting moments, and making onesself standout in a crowded SUV-heavy market is a challenge. Naturally, the obvious thing to do is cancel the entire product lineup and replace it with electric Renault hatchbacks in as close to concept form as is legally allowed. And new nespresso machines in the dealers, naturally.
“company scion” Akio Toyoda
*Chef’s kiss*
Back to basics on Infiniti:
I always thought the FX looked great and surprised they took the risk with a futuristic design. It was too soon, but now everyone makes something similar. The Macan seems like a direct rip off of the FX and that sells very well.
I never understood why they ditched the old names (or “designations” since they are just numbers and letters). Maybe I have blinders on being someone who reads a car blog, but it seemed like the market knew what the “G” and “FX” brought to the table. I doubt the QX56 sales really improved after changing it to QX80 or whatever it is now. IMO, making everything “Q” or “QX” just made the whole lineup even more forgettable.
So Toyota’s first new EV is going to be a 3 row monster…. Guess they are going full American, priced $79,995 with a giant battery.
CEO of Infiniti.
First I’d kill every CVT in the lineup. Next is a CT6 variant based on the Altima, but make it electric. A true GT version of the Z, a version of the X Terra but heritage style to go after Land Rover and Land Cruiser, finally a Warrior version of the Titan because WE ARE SPARTA! I ain’t letting that truck go.
Oh, and an Updated Q based on the Maxima.
I actually think there’s a market for the big Nissan trucks and SUVs. Last I checked they’re still V8 powered and feel like trucks from 10+ years ago. A lot of people still want that and aren’t happy most other manufacturers have moved on to smaller, forced induction engines.
I’m not sure why they aren’t riding that for all it’s worth, at least in the US. I’ve actually encountered a couple “the Nissan Titan is one of the last true trucks” takes online. Take that and run with it. “Do you want an American truck with an emasculating 4 or 6 cylinder or a big rumbling V8? We’ll finance anyone with a pulse, come on down!”
I still can’t believe CVT’s are still around. Everyone jumped on it 25yrs ago as a cheap way to increase MPG, but they suck for cars and everyone hated them. Some listened and then they just turbo’d everything and went to 7,8,10 spd autos. Combine CVTs with a super dated lineup, how has Nissan not gone bankrupt. I guess 8+ yr loans and free publicity of how well their cars launch off lowered flat bed ramps helps.
And they market cvts as being for use off-road. At least, that’s what the commercial looks like to me: handsome guy in a Rogue ain’t having’ none of that wait-for-the-flag-guy, flashes his pearly whites at the camera in an entitled smile, and blasts up a steep track to bypass that road work. I can’t imagine how quickly you’d toast a cvt off-roading it what with the ‘Lifetime Fill’.
F Nissan and their F’ing cvt-especially with their lack of drain plug and doubly F them with their refusal to tell anyone how to change the damn fluid: “It doesn’t ever need to be changed; its ‘Lifetime Fill’”
Yeah, I’m happy that I’ve mellowed about a lot of car stuff in the last few years, but, I’ll flatly say that when I mellow about how Nissan treated us over that cvt, well, look for my obit later that week
I’m actually rooting for Infiniti. A lot of their current vehicles aren’t all that bad, they’re just overpriced for what they deliver. Once some sucker eats the depreciation they’re good buys in the 30s/40s. You can get a certified Q50 or 60 Red Sport around that range and they’re 400 horsepower, RWD, fairly reliable cars with an engine that’s a relative of the GTR’s.
But buying one new? Dear god no. DO NOT. They’re absolute dinosaurs compared to the competition. Anyway, my plan for them would be pretty simple and partially sincere:
1). Shoot all Jatco CVTs into the sun. Make all transmissions ZF. Nissan (I think in conjunction with Aisin?) actually has a deal to build ZF equivalents under license. They need to do it across the board.
2). Fast track a reskinned Aria to market to get into the EV game.
3). Redesign the goddamn Q50. There is no excuse for it to be the late 2000s relic that it is and people still buy luxury sedans.
4). Update the interior and powertrain of the Q60 (the outside looks great as is) and chop the roof off it.
5). PHEV all the things
They are the only company using platforms older than Stellantis.
The fact that the current Z is essentially the same thing underneath as the 350Z I lusted after as a literal child is not lost on me….and I’m friggin 32. I can buy a reskinned version of the car I wanted when I was 12 brand new off a dealer lot. Oy vey…
Hey, at least it got a new engine and tran-oh.
At least it’s not a 30 year old eng-oh.
Fixing Infiniti would be to start with updating their product line in regards to interior experience and drivetrain technology. It seems that Infiniti has never used any of Nissan’s EV technology, which it should embrace to compete with Polestar, Tesla, and Cadillac in the premium segment. Make an SUV, crossover hatch, and a luxury sports sedan with big price tags and find features that no one else has.
After that, go on an advertising blitz. I never see any Infiniti ads, but plenty of those Brie Larson Nissan ads. Get another actor, influencer, anyone to be the voice and face of Infiniti. Get it in front of people and push Japanese quality with new features all over TV, Instagram, TikTok, anywhere you can get it. Give them away for a year to big influencers. Make Infiniti a product people want. It worked for Tesla, it can work for Infiniti.
Finally, after you spend all that money, make the dealerships as interesting as you can. Not just a Nespresso and some leather furniture. Add goofy shit like a VR tour of models, have simulators setup for the sports sedan, make it something where even the average idiot wants to go check it out. Get asses into seats.
Finally, you update your volume models. It looks like the QX80 and other SUV’s are the big money makers. You keep updating them with new interiors and focus on making Lexus type quality. Just keep the volume models hot and let the EV’s slowly take over as adoption increases over the next 10 years.
Base models are the rarest car in the world right now based on my shopping the last couple months. It’s frustrating to be in the market but only find higher trim models out of your price range.
Toyota may be a few steps behind right now but they’ll ultimately produce something that many of the upstarts can’t – results. Not just results but vehicles with a trusted brand behind them. In the end, Toyota will do just fine and will likely dominate the market.
I’ve posted it over and over, but the idea Toyota is “behind” is laughable I think. They sell more “big battery” cars than anyone. They have been serious about battery R&D likely longer than the competition because of their hybrids. They have just been more conservative with timing their entry into the market. The BZ whatever (certainly not bravo zulu) is a throwaway compliance car.
Maybe they suffer for that in the long run, or maybe these people who traded in their Prius for another brand’s EV come right back once Toyota has one that is competitive.
This question is easy. Get a Sprinter Van and start living my life down by the river…
I will be about a 100 yards upstream. We can be neighbors.
I’ll cash in my 401k and moor my BMW pontoon-aquarium out in the river between y’all.
Hey hey. Stay in your lanes.
Infinity Job one is to put the Nissan GT-r Motor in everything(got to make up for the lack of Hellcats). Make sure all CVT’s are trashed, and then get to work on the plug in hybrids and EV’s using the Euro trash systems, but hopefully improving them.
Yes, the Eau Rouge should definitely still happen.