Camry sales rise as model draws younger buyers

A revamped Camry sedan is selling briskly, and attracting a far younger buyer than Toyota ever expected, a top executive said Tuesday.

The top-selling car in the U.S. was reworked for the 2012 model year to make it more stylish, luxurious, and fun to drive, Bob Carter, Toyota's senior vice president of automotive operations in the U.S., told analysts and investors at the J.P. Morgan Auto Conference in New York. Sales are up almost 40 percent this year to nearly 244,000 cars. That's 60,000 more than the Camry's two closest competitors, the Honda Accord and Nissan Altima.

Before its remake, the Camry was reliable but boring. Handling was average and its looks were bland. As a result, it attracted mainly baby-boomers in their mid-50s who were looking for reliable transportation.

But the new version has pulled in younger buyers, knocking 10 years off the age of the average buyer, Carter said.

"We didn't anticipate that much movement in the demographics," he said.

One reason younger buyers are going for Camrys is a sportier version called the "SE," which has a firmer suspension, aluminum wheels and low-profile tires. It now makes up about 40 percent of Camry sales, Carter said.

The company also changed its marketing to focus more on the car's style and handling, Carter said.

Worldwide, Toyota overcame the recalls and natural disasters to retake the crown of top-selling automaker from General Motors during the first half of the year. Toyota sold 4.97 million vehicles globally, about 300,000 more than GM.

Courtesy of MercuryNews.com

Toyota Considering Raising U.S. Production

Did you know that Toyota currently manufactures around 70% of its models sold in North America in North America?

Jim Lentz, President and CEO of Toyota Motor Sales USA, states, "With the Yen where it is today, I think it's only a matter of time.", reffering to increasing North American production at an auto industry conference this past week.

The strength of the Yen has hit Toyota hard, upping the pressure for Toyota to stay lean and become innovative. 

Toyota is currently in the process of hiring 3,500 workers in North America while investing over 1.5 billion dollars in its factories in North America. A hedge bet againts the value of the Yen.

The company doesn't have firm plans to shift production of more models from Japan to North America, he said. But one model Toyota would consider building here is the Lexus ES series.

Toyota, like other manufacturers, would make changes to squeeze more production out of existing plants rather than building new buildings, he said. A new plant costs about $1 billion, Lentz said.

Toyota still thinks automakers can sell 14.3 million vehicles in U.S. this year, he said, even though sales have slowed the past two months, and some analysts have cut their forecasts. But Lentz said pent-up demand should prop up sales. The average vehicle in the U.S. is nearly 11 years old, and people have to replace their aging rides.

Toyota, he said, has fully recovered from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hobbled its Japanese factories and caused model shortages worldwide. In the U.S., the company's dealer inventory dropped to around 120,000 vehicles last summer. Now it's back to 299,000, which is near the 300,000 that Toyota considers optimal.

Lentz also said discounts are starting to surface in the luxury market, which has dropped to around 10 percent of total U.S. sales this year. Normally it's around 12 percent, he said. But although discounts may rise, Lentz doesn't think an all-out price war will break out.

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Toyota to sell fuel cell vehicle in 2015

Toyota plans to sell a fuel cell vehicle in 2015, which would make it a leader in a technology that most other automakers regard as about 10 years from being marketable.

Toyota is sticking to its timetable of selling a fuel cell sedan in three years, said Justin Ward, advanced powertrain program manager at the Toyota Technical Center in Ann Arbor.

Initially, it likely will be sold in California, which plans to have 68 hydrogen fueling stations by the end of 2015, Ward said at the Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminars.

Ward said the fuel cell car will be available for both retail and commercial sale.

Honda has sold a few hundred of its FCX Clarity fuel cell-electric cars since 2008, mostly in California.

Executives from Ford, General Motors, Chrysler and Volkswagen see fuel cell vehicles as being further out and most have not said when they will have vehicles on the market.

"We don't see it as early as Toyota does," said Oliver Schmidt, general manager of engineering with the VW Group. "We see it in the 2020 timeframe."

Joe Bakaj, Ford vice president of powertrain engineering, said, "The question is when fuel cell vehicles become affordable to customers," specifically when the fuel cell stack competes with the battery pack on cost.

"Within 10 years I think they will be as affordable as full battery vehicles and the fuel cell will have a big advantage in range," Bakaj said. "We think it will happen in the next 10 years."

Gary Smyth, GM executive director working on global research and development, said he sees little commitment in the U.S. to the necessary infrastructure by 2015.

 

-Courtesy of Detroit Free Press

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