Kei Car Co-Ops
How do you make money with small cars? You make it up with volume. The Japanese market for the very Japanese minivehicles, or kei cars, is shrinking. So what do manufacturers do? They circle the diminutive wagons and forge joint ventures.
Nissan and Mitsubishi agreed on a joint venture to make kei cars together for the Japanese market. The joint venture will start in June. The JV will have a capital befitting the size : 10 million yen, or $ 122,000
A while ago, Fuji Heavy’s Subaru has announced that Daihatsu will build its minivehicles. Subaru will use the liberated capacities to build hot numbers for car crazed customers, or carmania, as auto manicas are called in Japanese.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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I love kei cars. With the Mitsubishi i and Scion iQ, it looks like we'll be getting some soon...in some form.
I'd love to drive a Cappuccino or a similar small Daihatsu convertible.