The Japan Automobile Manufacturers today released its 2016-2017 Annual Contributions Report, saying in 2015 Japan Automakers purchased a record $67.9 billion in U.S.-made auto parts, much of them from their own keiretsu partners. U.S. let vehicles in 2015 were at an all-time high at 17.44 million.
The report, with a timely lobbying aspect during the U.S. Presidential election, claims that Japanese automakers make up more than 77% of all alternative-powered vehicles on U.S. roads today. Well, that is the result of the Japanese government subsidized Prius and subsequent Toyota and Lexus hybrids, as well further technology including the Nissan Leaf EV. To be fair, these extremely clean vehicles were partly if not directly the result of the disastrous U.S.- government sponsored Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles**.
JAMA normally runs for cover on bad news or critical developments, not returning media inquiries on, say, the Takata airbag shrapnel debacle. It’s a good bet that the current American presidential election with xenophobic and racist, serial molester Donald Trump (threatening a 37.5% tariff on auto imports) and the disliked, corrupt Hillary Clinton, as well as the fight over the Trans Pacific partnership a losing deal that the Obama presidency is still promoting, are all factors behind JAMA’s activism in Washington. The report isn’t new, but the atmosphere when it was released is more turbulent with thunderstorms than ever.
“JAMA members support over 1.5 million U.S. jobs and contribute to the vitality of the country in numerous ways, illustrating their integral role in shaping the automotive future in the U.S. through leadership in emerging technologies, environmental stewardship, workforce development, STEM education, and community partnerships,” claimed Manny Manriquez, General Director of JAMA USA. Mr. Manriquez is unknown to AutoInformed.com, but has been with JAMA since 2013 in government and public affairs positions.
JAMA in the U.S.
- In 2015, Japanese automakers built nearly 3.9 million vehicles and 4.6 million engines in the U.S.
- 75% of Japanese-brand vehicles sold in the U.S. are built in North America.
- JAMA members exported 417,699 cars and trucks from their plants in the U.S. in 2015.
- Japanese-brand automakers have cumulatively invested over $45.4 billion in the United States.
** PNGV
This is a notable Federal failure because the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, aka PNGV, was a cooperative research program between the U.S. government and then DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Company and General Motors. Critics, including this industry observer now at AutoInformed, described it as $80 billion in welfare for automakers and the national labs. PNGV, allegedly, would bring 80 mpg vehicles to market by 2003. The partnership, formed in 1993, involved eight federal agencies, the national laboratories, universities, and the United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR), which then was the Detroit Three. The program was cancelled by the Bush Administration in 2001 at the request of the automakers. Not a single production vehicle was built.
Since Japanese automakers were excluded from the federal research program – and worried it might work, Toyota then started its own research program with the help of the Japanese government on fuel efficient hybrid cars. The result was Prius – and ultimately the hybrid segment that Toyota now dominates in the U.S. and around the world. In the U.S. more than 75% of alternative fuel vehicles on the road are Japanese.
