Copyright thestar
In 1973, not many Canadians fell in love with a newly launched car that resembled a large toaster and had about the same horsepower. But it was extraordinarily cheap and matched many larger U.S. luxury cars in skilful engineering and reliability. In its first year it found only 747 customers, though. Three years later, the Honda Civic was the bestselling import in Canada. Price was a factor — $2,150 — but only one. Like big car companies then and now, the Big Three were not known for their thoughtful and reasonably priced customer service. Soichiro Honda, the founder of the Honda Motor Company, rejected by the Japanese government as an auto assembler, launched his car company around the world, instead. He had a markedly different, more Japanese approach to customer loyalty: if an owner was angry about any part or performance of the car failing, it was Honda’s fault. They would fix it, often for free. The mid-‘70s were the point at which North American highways were flooded with road salt each winter. Local cars rusted badly, often within the first two to three years. The car companies offered to line the car chassis with rust preventers, but at a cost of several hundred dollars. Hondas rusted badly, too. Told of the problem, Soichiro Honda ordered every existing Civic to be given the most expensive treatment and every Honda in production to receive it at the plant, free. The industry gasped in horror. Asked about it 15 years later, Honda became quite animated recalling those early days. “I thought we would be cheating our customers if we didn’t jump on it. We didn’t know about road salt in Japan. That was our fault. So we fixed it.” This very different approach to customer satisfaction boosted Honda into a world leader in fine cars within a decade. It launched a greenfield site in Alliston, Ont., in 1986. After two years of production, the Ontario plant came in second in the world for quality performance in the Honda empire. Canada’s love affair with Japanese cars was then firmly rooted as Toyota and Suzuki followed as assemblers, followed by dozens of parts companies. Together, although they each fought hard against unions, they employed tens of thousands of Canadians and worked hard on maintaining good labour and community relations. It was a win-win for Canada. Ten years after Honda’s launch in Alliston, a tiny battery company was established in Shenzhen, China, just north of Hong Kong. The founder, Wang Changfu, was not yet 30. With two other colleagues and some family money he established BYD. He lured both Warren Buffett and Bill Gates as early investors. Within a decade, BYD moved from batteries to cars. Their early cars were a little rough around the edges. Today, they are the biggest car manufacturer in China. They operate plants in six countries, with four more under construction. One bus assembly plant opened in Newmarket. Would it not be wise, given U.S. President Donald Trump’s determination to smash our big three assemblers’ infrastructure, to invite a Chinese firm to build a big electric vehicle plant here? The deal could be quite similar to our original agreements with the Japanese nearly half a century ago. Pledge to build an agreed number of vehicles in Canada by 2030 and we will cut tariffs and offer tax and other incentives, today. Yes, Trump’s head would explode. But as he has demonstrated just last week, his head can explode over a TV ad. Canada could use a successful Chinese manufacturer to attract other Chinese and European assemblers and the army of parts assemblers that always follow. China will soon heavily dominate global electric vehicle production. Would it not make sense to secure an early partnership with the next auto giants?
