“Starting in late 2009, picking up speed through 2010 and especially in 2011, GM’s Chevrolet Volt and Toyota’s Prius-derived plug-in hybrids will arrive in markets in the United States and around the globe.” 

They both has downsides and good points.
GM’s Volt can ran 40 miles with electricity. Toyota’s Prius can ran 10 miles with electricity; however, because the buttery is much lighter than Volt’s, its gasoline efficiency is much higher.
Pricing differs too. Volt costs about $40,000 where Prius is about the half of that price.

Now the economy is so bad, and GM is getting bailout money from government most likely.
Car industry is struggling as consumers spend less and less.

In my guess, economy is not gonna get back in late 2009 yet, thus, these new cars debut may be not really successful.

However, in the long run, the investment in these cars fueled by electricity is a must because gasoline is not going to last forever and also, our concern for environment is becoming bigger and bigger every year.

To keep the position of top car automaker, these companies can not neglect investing on product innovations.

I wonder how this recession is going to affect the car industry in terms of product competitive advantage because certainly this affects the ability of budgetting money for innovations.

Summary: Toyota’s new car iQ which has been sold in Japan and some other countries already, is a small car that is good for 3 adults with a child or luggage in comfort. Engineering innovations enabled them to create a good space for such a small car.

I thought that the idea of iQ is such a “Japanese” one.

Japan is  such a small country.
It is not too much to say that everything in Japan is smaller than the one in the U.S.
House is smaller, thus, appliances and furniture are smaller and that goes on.
Thus, naturally, we prefer small, compact things that has good ability and quality.
That’s a value for us.

Around my house, the road is so narrow that when two car passes each other going different direction, the drivers have to slow down and be careful not to fall to the edge of road. Smaller cars would make things easier.
However, in U.S., there are need for fuel efficient cars but not for small size cars since the land is big and road is always broad.

So Japanese people are always thinking making things smaller yet with good function.
I doubt americans think in this way. (sorry if  I am little biased)
I thought, iQ represents a typical Japanese people’s mind.

and the concept happens to be a good for Europe as well.
iQ is targeting people live in urban area.
Europe is their major target, which is understandable because cities in Europe has narrow roads and a lot of traffic.

Toyota found that the Value that has been considered important in Japan works for Europe and is expanding its business, which I think is smart.

World is big. There are many different cultures. However, there are also commonalities.
It is curutial for companies that do business globally to utilize this commonalities and benefit from economies of scales.

Summary: Toyota is going to introduce its CNG (compressed natural gas) concept vhecle in November 2008 at the auto show. With the changes in environmental awareness and  economic conditions, they see better chance of marketing this product than 1990 when their CNG supported car did not have much success.

http://jalopnik.com/5054041/cng+powered-toyota-camry-hybrid-coming-to-la-auto-show

Car industry is doing not good in this economy situation and Toyota is not an exception. “Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp more than halved its profit forecasts, saying annual net earnings will plunge to a 9-year low” http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSTRE4A506G20081106?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews)

Thus, they need to give consumers VALUE that would appeal to them. Although CNG is not a new innovation, it is a good time for them to re-introduce it.

 First, CNG costs less than gasoline. Now, consumers are reducing their spendings. Though gasloine price has come down recently, it is still higher than 1999 when Toyota marketed CNG vehicle before.
Second, it is environmentally friendly. More and more people are aware of environmental concerns now. So what CNG can offer is a good value to envrionmentally friendly consumers.

Car industry is really competitive and other automobile companies are manufacturing CNG concept vehicles as well.
How Toyota is going to differenciate their products are really important for them.