A Study on Differentiation of Toyota's Alternative Fuel Vehicle (AFV) Strategy

A sudden slowdown of BEV(battery electric vehicle) sales growth definitely contrasts with a soaring trend of HEV (hybrid EV) sales. The HEV has been the most popular AFV model in Japan although many countries have actively driven the BEV supply expansion since the middle of 2010s. This study intends to manage the distinction of Toyota's AFV strategy together with the characteristic of Japanese automobile industry. Firstly, since 2010, Japanese automobile output, sales & export volume trend, the domestic market share trend of local makers and the AFV sales volume trend are to be traced. Secondly, Toyota's management result and AFV sales volume trend are to be analyzed. Thirdly, the comparison for Toyota's AFV models & the price range with those of other rival makers is to be made. As a result, the management performance of Toyota largely improved with a help of HEV sales increase. Toyota offers more various priced HEV models than any other makers, which are enough to cover both economic HEVs and premium ones. So, the distinction of Toyota's AFV strategy is based on the customer oriented marketing for HEV rather than the supplier oriented one. Furthermore, it can be argued that the BEV chasm is caused by a tardy response of BEV suppliers on the marketing mix change from ‘Four Ps’ to ‘Four Cs’ post pandemic.