Japanese Automakers Launching New Models Ahead of Tokyo Motor Show

Tokyo, Aug 24, 2007; Jiji Press reported that Japanese automakers are launching new vehicles one after another ahead of the Tokyo Motor Show this autumn, hoping that the new models will be a driving force to boost stagnant domestic sales.

The Tokyo Motor Show, which opens on Oct. 26 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, and runs through Nov. 11, has become a biennial event from this year, covering the whole automotive range of passenger cars, commercial vehicles and motorcycles, as well as vehicle parts.

"We hope that the Tokyo Motor Show will provide a spark to boost sales," Toyota Motor Corp. President Katsuaki Watanabe has said.

Ahead of the event, Nissan Motor Co. launched a fully remodeled X-Trail sport-utility vehicle earlier this month, and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., a new Gallant Fortis sedan.

Toyota, the industry leader, which put on the market a new Vanguard SUV this month, will launch a new model of the Land Cruiser off-road vehicle in September.

In October, Honda Motor Co.'s new Fit subcompact car and Nissan's Skyline coupe will make their debuts, along with Mitsubishi Motors' new Lancer Evolution Wagon and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.'s new Impreza WRX passenger car.

Used car dealer Gulliver International Co. expects Japanese automakers' domestic sales in 2007 to improve from the previous year, given the number of new models being launched this year.

In the January-June first half of 2007, new car sales in Japan fell to a 22-year low, partly due to a lack of new models.

But despite stagnant domestic sales, Japanese automakers enjoyed robust earnings in the April-June fiscal first quarter, helped by booming overseas sales, whose effect was amplified by a weak yen.

Now that the yen has started strengthening against the dollar and the euro, Japanese automakers' fiscal 2007 earnings will hinge on how they perform in the domestic market, industry sources said.