At a meeting held in Makuhari (Chiba Pref.) today, the chief executives of the world's leading car manufacturers discussed the challenges facing their industry and acknowledged the critical importance of addressing the climate change and energy security issues. The CEOs further recognized that these issues must be addressed on the basis of an integrated approach, involving not only automakers but also government, the energy industry, and vehicle users. Other topics addressed at the meeting were global fuel regulations, road safety, and intellectual property.

The 5th Global Automotive Industry Meeting brought together auto industry leaders from Europe, the United States and Japan on the occasion of the 40th Tokyo Motor Show. Representatives of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (ALLIANCE) and the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) also participated. Previous meetings were held in Paris (September 2002), Tokyo (October 2003), Detroit (January 2005), and Geneva (February 2006).

Chairing the meeting, Toyota Motor Corporation Chairman Fujio Cho led the participants in deliberations on the most urgent issues confronting the global passenger car industry today. The CEOs unanimously agreed that:

"Vehicle manufacturers will continue to contribute to social and industrial development and to help resolve global-scale issues relating to the environment, natural resources, energy, and road safety. Furthermore, vehicle manufacturers will build productive and constructive partnerships with governments, consumers and other stakeholders in order to address these issues."

Climate Change: A Global Challenge

Although CO2 and other greenhouse gases are recognized as the leading cause of climate change, total worldwide emissions of these gases continue to increase. The automobile industry must respond to this challenge by implementing mid- and long-term measures to reduce CO2 emissions on a global basis, ensuring the sustainability of road transport.

Reducing CO2 emissions will require continued improvements in fuel efficiency in gasoline and diesel vehicles, as well as advances both in hybrid (including plug-in) and next-generation clean-diesel vehicle technologies and in the development of alternative-fuel vehicles such as fuel-cell and hydrogen vehicles.
In order to reduce not only CO2 emissions but also oil dependence, progress must be made in the development of alternative fuels (and batteries) in parallel with innovations in vehicle technologies. To facilitate the use of alternative fuels in the road transport sector, issues such as their uneven global availability, stable supply, the infrastructure required for their distribution, and the reliability of fuel quality are critical.

The automobile industry will make every possible effort with respect to developing the next-generation environmentally friendly technologies required and promoting the application of those technologies. However, reducing road-transport CO2 emissions cannot be the responsibility of vehicle manufacturers alone. Responding effectively to climate change will require an integrated approach involving all the stakeholders concerned, including government for the establishment of infrastructures and incentive measures for vehicle purchasers/users, the energy industry for the supply of appropriate fuels, and drivers for appropriate vehicle use.

Moreover, many of the technologies required are still at an early stage of development, making it difficult at this point in time to determine their future scope of application. Further, their full-fledged development represents an enormous and largely uncertain financial investment for individual vehicle manufacturers. Government would therefore have a particularly important role to play in providing R&D incentives to vehicle manufacturers and, in a collaborative effort with research institutes (whether public or private), in promoting the development of basic common technologies.

Global Fuel Regulations

Through a joint initiative of the Global Automotive Industry Meeting and the Global Commercial Vehicle Industry Meeting, a letter was submitted at the 4th Global Commercial Vehicle Industry Meeting in September 2006 to the chairman of WP29,^* requesting that body to address the need for global fuel regulations and harmonized emissions regulations.

Subsequently, WP29 announced its decision to hold a roundtable meeting of automotive and petroleum industry experts as well as government representatives on November 15, 2007 to discuss fuel quality improvements and the possibility of supplying high-quality fuels worldwide. The chief executives at today's meeting welcomed the progress being made towards international agreements on global fuel regulations and voiced their support for this development.

*The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's World Forum for Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations

Advancing Road Safety

Auto industry leaders also reviewed some of the enhancements automakers have brought to the global marketplace, including anti-lock braking, stability control, brake assist, and lighting technologies. Despite these innovations, road traffic safety is expected to be a significant public health challenge in the future. The industry agrees that road traffic safety is a shared responsibility, with the general public, government and the industry all having critical roles in building sound road injury prevention policies.

Among the global industry's common concerns are underutilization of safety belts and child restraints, driving under the influence of alcohol and pedestrian protection.

Intellectual Property

The automobile industries of Europe, Japan and the United States agreed at the 3rd Global Automotive Industry Meeting in 2005 to launch a trilateral Intellectual Property Working Group to debate the ways of effectively combating counterfeit products on a worldwide scale. The IP Working Group met most recently at Beijing in November 2006 and at Shanghai in April 2007.

The CEOs of car manufacturers have meanwhile urged their governments to treat enforcement in regard to counterfeit automotive products as a priority matter, and the IP Working Group has conducted campaigns to raise public awareness of this issue. In addition, a trilateral network using a common Web site ("e-Room") has been established for the exchange of information among corporate experts on anti-counterfeit measures, brand management and intellectual property.

The chief executives attending today's meeting agreed that their IP experts would continue to work together on practical improvements at the operational level.

Mutual Recognition of Whole Vehicle Certification

Since the first Global Automotive Industry Meeting in 2002 there has been extensive discussion on the international harmonization of automotive technical regulations, and the automobile industry worldwide has recognized the need to accelerate the formulation of global technical regulations on vehicle safety and environmental performance. Based on this consensus, Japan is now, through joint government-industry efforts, working towards mutual recognition of whole vehicle certification on the basis of WP29 principles. Participants in today's meeting were presented with a brief outline of those efforts.

Next Meeting

At the conclusion of today's meeting, the chief executives discussed the plan to hold the 6th Global Automotive Industry Meeting in Detroit, Michigan in January 2009 on the occasion of the North American International Auto Show.

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