DETROIT- According to the Wall Street Journal, Toyota is planning a $1 billion marketing push in the fourth quarter in the American market. The strategy was formulated in part by Akio Toyoda himself, and aims to invigorate the company’s sagging North American operations. $1 billion is a huge amount of money for an automaker to spend in a quarter, and for Toyota, it’s about 30 to 40 percent more than normal.
In other big “T” news, the company is thinking about expanding its hybrid offerings by making the Prius a separate sub-brand. There’s a lot of equity in the name, and Toyota could really cash-in on its “green-cred” by offering a wider range of dedicated hybrid vehicles.
Fascinating report from Reuters regarding Carl-Peter Forster, who runs Opel. He says car companies have outsourced too much to suppliers to the point that the balance of power has shifted in the industry. Now suppliers are in control, Forster says, because automakers no longer have the capability to develop key technology. The theory was that automakers only had to do design, marketing and final assembly. He says with electric cars, automakers need to pull more development back in-house. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that Forster runs Opel, which is being bought up by Magna, the giant supplier.
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