The Big 3 passes on the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show

The official deadline for joining the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show was last November but the organizing group would accept entries until they announced the official manufacturer lineup this month. Well, the people from the Tokyo Motor Show had good news as a handful of “foreign” automakers in the Japanese market will return to the show after skipping it in 2009 but the American automakers aren’t included in that group. Ford, GM and Chrysler all stayed home from the 2009 show and although the officials of the Tokyo show had hoped that improvements would encourage any or all of the Big 3 to return – it looks like 2011 will be another Tokyo show with no American representation.

The Tokyo Motor Show was once the major Asian auto show but with the exponential growth of the Chinese auto industry and with it, the growth of the Beijing and Shanghai shows, the Tokyo show has been overshadowed. This is complicated by the fact that each of the Big 3 has very minimal sales in Japan; especially compared to the numbers from China.

While Ford, GM and Chrysler will not be showing their new wares at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show the support by non-Japanese brands has grown by almost five times from the last Tokyo Motor Show in 2009. That last show saw just three non-Japanese automakers in attendance where the 2011 show reportedly has 14 foreign companies bringing out 17 different brands. To accommodate this, the organizers have expanded the floor space by 60% to over 377,000 square feet and in this added space show-goers will find the return of brands like Mercedes, Smart, Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, BMW, Mini, Land Rover and Jaguar.

The 2011 Tokyo Motor Show kicks off for the media on November 30th with public days beginning on December 2nd.

Source: Automotive News

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