Automotive News editor Dave Guilford had a chance to sit down with Tokuo Fukuichi, who takes over as president of Lexus International on April 1:
In an interview at the Geneva auto show, Fukuichi, speaking through an interpreter, parried a question about Lexus’ design future by saying, “The honest and frank answer is we really don’t know.”
“Mysterious,” he added.
“I think it’s rather strange, because we have other products that we use as consumers, the mobile phones and other devices, which change and evolve in a much shorter time span,” he says. “So I think it’s a little weird that we’re not doing that with the car.”
We’re in an era when everyday products like wristwatches will be supplanted by smartphones unless they offer some style, some psychological value, Fukuichi says. Mix in the prospect of self-guided vehicles, and the future looks mysterious indeed.
But Fukuichi finds it stimulating: “I think it’s quite exciting if we think about the future in that way.”
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