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| AUTOMOTIVE |
| innovation
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The leaders in the sector in terms of pure profitability, the likes of Honda, Nissan, Renault and Toyota, have all focused on steady execution of ambitious yet sensible growth plans. This has involved the development of a stream of new models that are produced and distributed with ever increasing efficiency. Unlike competitors such as GM, Ford and Fiat, these companies have avoided cut-throat price reductions to protect market share, choosing instead to introduce a gradually evolving range of high quality vehicles and new design-led sub-brands such as Lexus and Infiniti. From outside, this may appear to be indicative of incremental rather than radical innovation, but underneath there is incessant technological and consumer-led innovation taking place. Alongside developments in hybrid engines from Honda and Toyota that combine electric and traditional fossil fuel systems, Honda is leading the next generation of diesel engines and there is massive investment taking place in GM, Toyota and Daimler around new hydrogen fuel-cell-based platforms. At the same time, firms like Renault and Ford-owned Volvo have been introducing a stream of design innovations to improve passenger and now pedestrian safety. The full exploitation of multiple-variant opportunities for each platform, which meet niche consumer requirements with a host of space, performance and comfort improvements, has also been a major area of innovation activity to support competitive positioning. |
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