Voltz isn't catching on in Japan
Voltz isn't catching on in Japan
Sales of GM-Toyota Joint-Venture SUV Sputter in Japan; Matt Nauman, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News 05-13-2003By Matt Nauman, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.May 13--Introduced in 2002 as a landmark car for Fremont's NUMMI plant, the Toyota Voltz appears to failing in the Japanese market.Voltz production been cut at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., a Toyota-General Motors joint-venture assembly plant. Originally scheduled to manufacture 6,474 Voltz sport wagons this calendar year, NUMMI has been told to cut 1,699 from that total, said spokeswoman Rhonda Rigenhagen. Last year, it made 8,108.The car, which went into production last June, was the first NUMMI-made model to be sold in Japan.The Voltz also shows off the global spread of the world's auto industry. The Pontiac Vibe, which NUMMI also makes, serves as the platform for the Voltz. The Vibe is essentially the same car as the Toyota Matrix, which the automaker makes in Canada, and the Voltz is essentially a right-hand-drive version of the Vibe.Despite the production cutback, Rigenhagen said NUMMI executives remain "very pleased with the quality level of our Voltz."The Voltz went on sale in July through Toyota's Netz dealerships, which targets younger buyers. Voltz sales peaked at 1,346 in September of 2002 but fell below 500 units in both January and February of this year.Although disappointed with its acceptance on the market, Toyota is happy with who is buying the Voltz in Japan."We had aimed Voltz to sell to the young generation and we have so far achieved that," said Shino Yamada with Toyota Motor in Japan.A third of Voltz buyers have been 29 or younger, the spokesperson said. Another quarter have been in their 30s. Nearly 90 percent of Voltz buyers have been men.Yamada blames shifting market preferences for the Voltz' lukewarm performance."One reason (is) because the SUVs are not as popular as in the past," said Yamada.Steve Usher, a senior auto analyst with J.P. Morgan Securities Asia in Tokyo, said Toyota had hoped to sell as many as 1,500 Voltzes a month, but has never reached that goal.Why? The Voltz competes "in an extremely crowded segment, populated with must-succeed vehicles from the likes of Honda, Nissan, Mazda and Mitsubishi," Usher said. "It is one of a number of Toyota entries in the segment and is a fairly small scale entry at that," he said.In the past, several U.S.-built vehicles, most notably the Chevrolet Cavalier, have failed to attract Japanese buyers due to the perception that they didn't meet that country's exacting quality standards.That the Voltz is built in the United States hasn't been an issue, Usher said."There has not been a focus on the origin of the vehicle and I do not think that has much, if any, impact on performance," he said.-----To see more of the San Jose Mercury News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.mercurynews.com.© 2003, San Jose Mercury News, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.