Trucks at Center Stage in Tokyo Motor Show
TOKYO — In Japan, narrow streets and regulatory limits on vehicle lengths and weights create an environment for commercial trucking that tolerates only the use of cab-over-engine trucks. That is why COEs, ranging from small, light-duty courier trucks to this country’s equivalent of Class 8 heavy-duty tractors, were the only truck types on display at the 34th Tokyo Motor Show.
This was the first Tokyo show dedicated exclusively to commercial vehicles. Traditionally, the event has been a biannual showcase more for cars and sport utility vehicles than for trucks. But this commercial-vehicle-only event gave truck and component manufacturers an opportunity to demonstrate new products and technologies while also trying to stimulate this country’s moribund truck-making industry.
These are not easy times for the Japanese truck manufacturers. During the 1990s, truck sales dropped along with the nation’s economy. Last year, sales of trucks ranging in weight from 10,000 to 30,000 pounds — the equivalent of medium-duty trucks in the U.S. — were about 40,000 units, down from an industry high of more than 111,000 in 1990. Total medium- and heavy-duty truck sales were 81,000, down 27% from the previous year.
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 |  Jim Galligan - Transport Topics |
| Hino Motors’ heavy-duty concept cab includes sliding — instead of hinged — doors. |
The interest for the U.S. market come from the numerous alliances among the world’s truck manufacturers and component suppliers, which are creating an international production and distribution network. Technologies that were on display here could very well end up in trucks available in the United States in the future.
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