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" /> New Lexus President Tokuo Fukuichi Shares Details on Future Plans – Lexus Enthusiast | Lexus Enthusiast

New Lexus President Tokuo Fukuichi Shares Details on Future Plans

Posted by Kevin on April 17th, 2014

The Lexus UK blog has an interview with newly named Lexus International president Tokuo Fukuichi:

Q: Will you push Lexus design even more strongly now you are the overall president too?

A: Tokuo Fukuichi: From now on I don’t want to create nice designs, I want to create impressive designs, ones that remain in minds. I should add that Lexus already started taking this turn since a couple of years, with the spindle grille as symbol heralding the change, plus acclaimed coupe concepts LF-LC LF-CC and LF-NX, now the production models IS, RC and RC F, and of course NX. But in future, we will push even harder.

Q: What steps are you taking to enhance the Lexus brand further?

A: It’s important to improve market share but it’s not my main focus as I think keeping and improving on very high performance, quality and safety will create a strong and attractive brand image. And when you have a strong brand image, sales will improve naturally. We also have to change the body style to a low and stable-sided one, which will help performance. Creating a completely new body architecture that no other car brand has is very important in terms of design.

Read the full interview with Lexus International president Tokuo Fukuichi

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    BlackDyanmiteOnline
  • April 18, 2014
Unlike the Germans, sales volume isn't everything at Lexus. The brand's image and strength, long-term, is what counts. They know how to build great cars. Now they're learning how to make great designs. Lexus' brand will only get stronger as the Germans desperately try to one-up each other for the next sale, while sliding downmarket..... Lexus walks a higher path. BD
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      Levi
    • April 18, 2014
    True. Germans only have their sales numbers (in units, not money) as indicator of their success, to an extent there they don't see they are not doing any profit (Audi), that they don't see they make worse cars (BMW), that they don't see they lose exclusivity (Porsche). They produce more cars than the market demands, so that they have huge outsourced inventories of cars that were not sold, and that they will not sell, because they preferred to write them off than discount them. Mercedes on the other hand is heading in the right direction, they said they were not interested in sales.
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      BlackDyanmiteOnline
    • April 18, 2014
    1. Porsche is doing it right, because their least expensive vehicle will be the upcoming Macan, still a $50k vehicle, about $15k more than a similar sized luxury crossover, like the Lexus NX. Porsche needed to expand. It was too niche. Even with successful volume vehicles like the Cayenne, they still sell fractions of what Lexus, BMW and Mercedes do, and this allows them to keep quality high, sometimes even beating Lexus. So I have no issues with Porsche. 2. Mercedes is full of.......shananigans! They could have (should have?) price the CLA at $35k, and done a split market strategy like Lexus did with the IS and ES. But they'd rather bottom-feed the market, then be proud of bottom-feeding, and advertise that selling new Mercedes cars for $29k is something great? They can't have it both ways. BTW, people who have driven, or reviewed, the CLA consistently say they can tell where they cut costs to get the price down (suspension). Mercedes and cost-cutting? They have their priorities screwed up.... BD
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      Mike
    • April 18, 2014
    Levi: look at this slide => http://derstandard.at/1397301938550/Toyota-erzielt-den-meisten-Gewinn-je-Auto?_slide=6 Toyota is top!
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      Levi
    • April 18, 2014
    That is nice. Are those only brands or groups? Where is Mercedes, BMW and Audi? I know that Porsche earns more than 20K per car sold.
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      DFGeneer
    • April 19, 2014
    I would imagine it is quite accurate as it is simply the reported profit for the year divided by the amount of cars sold. However, the high net profit number of Toyota has to do mostly with the depreciation of the yen.
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    DFGeneer
  • April 19, 2014
Anyone has a clue what a "low and stable-sided" body style would mean? Probably a weird translation, but I have a good feeling about it.
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      Levi
    • April 19, 2014
    I think it "low and stable-sided" body is just what I like. What I imagine is the car to be wide up till the shoulder line, have a "thick" door and the glasshouse much narrower, both in depth and height.

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