Walking The Tokyo Motor Show With Nissan's Enfant Terrible, Part Deux

Yesterday, you had your private tour of the Tokyo Motor Show, and you could not find a more competent and entertaining tour guide than Nissan’s head designer Francois Bancon. (Officially, „Deputy Divisional GM for Product Strategy.”) The former Renault man has seen the world. He was a Frenchman of the first hour at Nissan.

If you want to see the Japanese market through European eyes, then please tag along for part deux of the tour, where Bancon talks about Suzuki, Honda, and Daimler. Listen closely to what Bancon says about Daimler. Renault/Nissan and Daimler have an alliance, and Bancon knows where it is heading

Executive summary for the video-impaired:

Bancon on Suzuki’s Swift EV Hybrid

“The Swift is not a hybrid, but a range-extender, a series hybrid. Swift is a very successful, a good car that is successful in India, somehow in Europe and a little bit less in Japan. You have an internal combustion engine powertrain exclusively used to recharge a battery. The car is a normal, rear-wheel powertrain. It’s a smart technology – it’s also an expensive technology. So, I’m not sure how much they’re going to price for this. But the idea is interesting in a compact package.”

Bancon on Honda’s N-Concept:

“This is a kei car category. The most important segment is what we call the high-wagon kei car. Honda was not there. So, now they decide to enter because the kei car is about 40% of the passenger vehicles in Japan, and they were not in the most promising category, so they went now back on track with the N-series and they’re going to compete with our Roox. It’s a box with wheels and you’re done.”

Bancon on the Mercedes and Ducati motorbike partnership:

“This is interesting because Mercedes is not a bike maker, as opposed to their main competitor in Germany. And they did this collaboration with Ducati and this is just a monster. And this is not by chance that Mercedes is also promoting the AMG series. I think they are pushing this direction to communicate the kind of high level of performance for the Mercedes brand. AMG was in Frankfurt, in Paris, now in Tokyo. It’s a kind of emblem, a kind of direction in which Mercedes wants to position themselves.”

Bancon on the Mercedes B-Class:

“This is interesting because this is a new-generation platform for Mercedes. This is also the platform for which we have some discussion with them about using some common components. Nothing really new—they just make the B-class better in terms of utility, roominess. The performance remains the same.”

Bancon on the Mercedes Concept-A:

“Close to the B-class, you have the other one, which shares the same hardware components. And this is giving you some direction about where Mercedes is going in terms of design expression. This is going to be the No. 3 or 4 car they will build on the new architecture, called MFA, which is something we’re sharing with Mercedes, possibly in the future.”

There were no American makers at the Tokyo Motor Show, which prevented Bancon from saying good things about Americans.