Still newly-minted Toyota Motor North America president Jim Press issued a press release yesterday talking about the "thriving" US automotive industry. In it, he re-iterated Toyota will continue to be around to help the US government solve major environmental and auto safety issues. How kind and sweet of Jim and his bosses from the land of the rising sun. We for one, welcome our new Japanese overlords and thank them for their offers of help. But wait, Jim continues:
"We're already developing vehicles that can operate in ethanol-rich Brazil and we're optimistic that we can offer similar vehicles to American consumers...here in the U.S., business is steady, and as America's population approaches 300 million the future is full of promise. The U.S. auto industry is coming off its third best year in history and sales so far this year are nearly on the same pace..."
Ah, we see — so Toyota's thinking about selling some alt-fuel cars here. How speculative of Jim. In addition...
...when he called the US auto industry "thriving" he meant Toyota is "thriving." Well, yeah — we know. Was it necessary to drop a press release saying that? Isn't that like dropping salt into an open wound? Luckily we know no outlet's going to cover the press release of an exec ruminating on possibilities while wrapping themselves in the American flag by claiming they are the US auto industry — especially considering the fact folks are just about ignoring every press release coming out of Dearborn and Detroit these days. So we're assuming this probably won't get any coverage either.
Toyota Optimistic About Future of U.S. Auto Industry, Pledges Cooperation on Energy, Safety & Environmental Issues [PRNewswire via Yahoo News]
Related:
Toyota Tells All: "GM Hasn't Talked To Us, We Haven't Talked To Them." [internal]