Brazil gains prominence for Toyota after investments
Japan's Masahiro Inoue couldn't imagine that backpacking through South America as a young man would determine the course of his professional life. But that trip marked him so much that he had no doubts about choosing Brazil when Toyota, the company he had started working for, opened applications for employees who wanted to do internships outside Japan. That was between 1992 and 1996. He returned for another stint at the Brazilian subsidiary from 2011 to 2013, and then came a third time last year when he assumed as CEO for Latin America and the Caribbean."I was very lucky to arrive in Brazil at the time of the opening of the market," says the 55-year-old executive, a trained engineer from Kyoto University, in the city where he was born. He is even luckier to head the company in the region at a time when Brazil is gaining more prominence within the Japanese company that is competing with Volkswagen to be the world's number one.
In 2019, Brazil climbed to seventh place in the internal ranking of the automaker, which operates in 185 countries. Also last year, Japan was passed by China, which moved to second place inside Toyota, behind the United States.
The rise of the Brazilian operation within the group largely results of recent investments. Toyota has taken the lead in the production of hybrid cars in the country. It invested R$1 billion in the Indaiatuba, São Paulo plant to produce the company's first dual-fuel hybrid cars. The new Corolla hybrid's combustion engine - responsible for firing the electric motor - is the first in the world able to run on ethanol.
The sales of the first Brazilian hybrid surprised the automaker's management team. The hybrid version already accounts for 40% of Corolla sales in the country. "We expected a 20% or 25% share at most," says Toyota's CEO for Brazil, Rafael Chang.
Four months ago, Toyota announced another investment of R$1 billion. But so far, it only revealed that the money will be used to produce a new car at the Sorocaba plant, also in São Paulo, to be launched in 2021. "They won't let me say nothing else," says the executive, a Peruvian of Chinese descent, smiling.
Messrs. Chang and Inoue have in common a good mood that differs from Asian standards. Both, on the other hand, strictly follow Toyota's cautious strategy. Mr. Inoue, who replaced the American Steve St. Angelo, represents the return of a Japanese chief to the region. In addition to the clear difference in style compared to the American, he...
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