IN THE DRIVING SEAT

As president and CEO of Toyota Europe, and a board member of the Japanese giant, SA’S Johan van Zyl keeps an eagle eye on developments from Brexit, to fuel-cell technology and African assembly plants

With Elon Musk grabbing the headlines, it’s easy to forget that there are many other South Africans who have risen to lofty heights in the global automotive industry. There was Gordon Murray from Durban, the designer of the Mclaren F1 supercar, for example, and Brian Gush from Port Elizabeth, who heads Bentley Motorsport. And there’s Oona Scheepers, who plays a key role in Volkswagen’s interior design strategy, having made her mark at Audi and Porsche.

Another giant of the global motor industry is Johan van Zyl, who has risen from a childhood in Springs, east of Joburg, to become the president and CEO of Toyota Europe. He is also on the board of the Japanese company, is involved in global operations, and remains chair of Toyota SA Motors.

Today, Van Zyl works from his office, not far from the airport in Brussels — a city that has assumed elevated importance as Theresa May’s government searches desperately for a plan to guide the UK’S exit from the EU. European council president Donald Tusk famously said that those in the UK who had promoted Brexit without a shred of a plan to make it work deserve “a special place in hell”.

As someone with a doctorate in business economics from what is now North-west University, and because of his subsequent years at the top of the motor business, Van Zyl would know a thing or two about the economic implications of Brexit.

Known to many as “The Doc”, Van Zyl joined Toyota after a spell at university that included a professorship. There, he says, he was “coached by real motor people”.

His rise was swift: in 1993 he became director of the vehicle sales and dealer network at Toyota SA, and was instrumental in increasing Toyota SA Motors’ position in the company’s global manufacturing network. Last year, the SA operation produced more than 139,000 vehicles — the bulk of them Hilux models for export.

These days, The Doc’s role in the SA operation is more as a figurehead, as company chair, with Andrew Kirby having taken over as CEO.

But Van Zyl has a much bigger portfolio. In 2009 he became managing officer of Toyota Motor Corp, responsible for Africa. Then he was appointed president and CEO of Toyota Motor Europe in 2015. Two years later, he became senior managing officer of Toyota globally.

In an interview with the FM, Van Zyl says SA was a great place to start. “SA is a very good school, because you get exposed to everything. Of course you also get exposed to tough conditions, a lot of changes in the environment and the unions are not always the easiest to deal with, so you get to see the total spectrum of the industry,” he says.

Europe, he says, is entirely different. “Europe is a continent, it’s 54 countries — each and every one of which has its own rules and regulations, and the customers and cultures are different.”

Competition is exceptionally fierce.

This took some adjustment for Van Zyl, coming from a country in which Toyota was used to having a high market share. (At present it is 24%.)

“In Europe if you’ve got 7% or 8% market share you are in the top of the market,” he says.

Encouragingly, it seems there are no plans for SA’S importance in the Toyota network to be diminished. Its manufacturing plant in Durban exports vehicles around the world.

Increasingly, however, other African countries are making plans to assemble vehicles. “If you look at Africa, you will find that most of the economies want to diversify and the first area they will be looking at is the auto industry,” says Van Zyl.

Toyota already has a small assembly operation in Kenya, and the African arm of the company is looking at other countries as potential assembly hubs. At the moment, I can’t say we are targeting this country or that — but it is clear than most of the countries would like to have their own assembly operations at least.”

If that happens, plants in those countries could use “assembly kits” manufactured in Durban, he says.

But other dynamics are likely to shape the future of the industry: for example, cars powered by alternative sources, such as electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Van Zyl gives nothing away. “If you look at the size of the SA market, such a development would have to go hand in hand with a strong export drive to other markets as well,” he says.

The implication, of course, is that any change in the power source would have to be standardised across all the products exported from SA, like the Hilux. “We have always said that we are going to have a wide range of applications and each one of these applications will suit the market condition — for example hybrids, plug-in hybrids, battery electric vehicles and then, of course, fuel cell [vehicles].”

Fuel cells work by converting hydrogenrich fuel into electricity without combustion.

Trade & industry minister Rob Davies has spoken of how SA has “prioritised fuel cells for proactive development”.

There would be a number of benefits to making fuel cells locally: for one thing, fuel cells, unlike electric engines, require platinum. So developing fuel cells would not only suit the automotive industry — it would suit SA’S platinum industry too.

Van Zyl is a huge advocate of hydrogen — not just in cars, but also as an industrial energy for households.

“If you want to develop a fuel cell or hydrogen economy, you need to adjust the policies to say: ‘OK , we want to develop fuel cells in SA — where are we going to use them?’ So [you need to] create a local mar-