Japanese vehicles to get cheaper in Europe

TOKYO: Some Japanese vehicles are set to get a whole lot cheaper for car buyers in Europe than they have been until now thanks to the EU and Japan signing a trade agreement.

It will also be good news for anyone in the business of supplying models from Japanese manufacturers, although it won’t see the price of Japanese cars and SUVs drop across the board.

Until now, imported Japanese cars had a ten percent tariff imposed on them by the EU, and there was also a three per cent tariff on parts. These tariffs will no longer apply, with th tariffs to be reduced to zero over eight years, but anyone assuming there will be a ten percent drop in the price of Japanese vehicles in general may be more than a touch disappointed.

On the face of things, Japanese cars are already pretty popular in Europe, particularly Toyotas and Hondas, so a major reduction in the price of these models would only see Europeans buying more of them, right? Well, yes, it’s a fair assumption, but for many models it won’t happen.

The reason is that a large number of the most popular models sold in Europe by Japanese manufacturers are built in Europe, and therefore don’t attract the 10 per cent external tariff in the first place.

In actual fact, there are

Our goal is to enhance services to customers utilising vehicle data uploaded to our mobility service platform. Shigeki Tomoyama, Executive Vice President of Toyota Motor Corporation

very few of the bigger-selling Japanese vehicles in Europe that are still built in Japan and exported into the EU. For example, the Toyota Yaris is built in France, the Toyota Auris is built in the UK and the Toyota Aygo is built in the Czech Republic. Likewise, the Honda Civic and Honda CR-V are both built in the UK.

However, if you fancy something a little more upscale, such as a Lexus for example, the majority of Lexus models sold in Europe are still built in Japan, and should therefore see a reduction in their price. Subaru is another manufacturer that doesn’t assemble its cars in Europe, so if an Impreza is on your list of potential buys you could be saving some money in the future.

But just because a Japanese car isn’t made in Europe it doesn’t mean it will necessarily cost less. And that’s because Japanese manufacturers also have a lot of manufacturing infrastructure in Southeast Asia and North, South and Central America, where tariffs still apply.

Meanwhile, the future of justin-time vehicle services and support has arrived in Japan in the form of two Toyota vehicles – the Crown and the Corolla Sport, launched just this year.

Crown and Corolla Sport, as the first generation of “Connected Cars,” come standard with an on-board Data Communication Module (DCM) that links to a Controller Area Network (CAN).

By using this hardware, Toyota can provide various connected services to TConnect subscribers through its proprietary Mobility Service Platform (MSPF), an information infrastructure developed by the company for Connected Cars. Toyota aims to equip most new passenger vehicles in its domestic market with DCM.

“Our goal is to enhance services to customers utilising vehicle data uploaded to our mobility service platform,” says Shigeki Tomoyama, Executive Vice President of Toyota Motor Corporation and president of Toyota’s in-house Connected Company.

“Importantly, we will also use connectivity to change the way we work with our dealers across the country.”