China, Japan and South Korea will dominate the car world for years to come
After a recent visit to North East Asia, Mike Rutherford thinks the rest of the car world has a lot of catching up to do
I’ve just served a 30-day stretch in North East Asia, doing my digital nomad bit. Temporary homes, offices, eateries and sacred places ranged from a room with no view in Beijing to the delights of the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club, the bonkers Insa-Dong Ppong Da Bang (honest!) tea room/cafe, and the neighbouring Jogyesa Buddhist Temple, which calms me like no other place on Earth.
This is a region that has quietly, comprehensively and controversially taken over as the centre of the car-producing world. While the UK makes hundreds of thousands of cars a year, China builds around 28 million, Japan seven million, South Korea four million.
Not sure why, in the eighties, a young lad from South East London was inclined to repeatedly visit North East Asia. But I was. So I did. Then, the region’s only pukka car-building nation was Japan. Korea trailed badly; China was even further back.
But this NE Asian trio now comfortably rules the automotive world – in production volumes and in tech prowess. What I saw on the drawing boards, in the showrooms and at exhibition centres in the region last month confirmed to me that it will remain the undisputed, almost untouchable, capital of the car world for decades to come.
But it does need to recognise that most consumers don’t want or can’t afford sleek, hi-tech, over-specced cars with cutting-edge designs and unaffordable prices. Humble, hard-working, but still generally skint rural folk, for example, need simple workhorses. Traditional cars or vans at the equivalent of £20k-£30k a pop are not an option.
The massively cheaper, less polished, more flexible IMV Origin unveiled by Toyota at the Japan Mobility Show might just be what those folk need. It’s basically a vehicle in a flatpack box. You build it yourself at home, on the farm, in the forest or wherever.
Then, after all the boxed components, plus every last supplied nut, bolt and screw, are installed in the right places during the DIY build, the buyer/builder is left with a skeletal four-wheeled machine that looks like a tall, even more stripped-down than usual go-kart.
As for the bodywork, the DIYer has to design, build and install it for his or herself. And it can be made from anything locally available – wood, metal or plastic… you name it.
If/when I can get my hands on an Origin, I’ll top it with a mobile office cum motorhome body made from insulated, waterproof, rubber panels that will remain unpainted and thus scratch/dent-resistant. Asian-style futons and furniture will grace the interior.
Much as I appreciate NE Asia’s sleek, shiny, state-of-the-art cars, many are boringly similar in terms of look, feel, tech, spec and price. Cheap, stripped-out, partially built vehicles with exteriors and interiors their owners can build, adjust or add to as and when the need arises are an absolute must. I want one. And I want it now.
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