The Great Grape Ape
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2017
- Threads
- 2
- Messages
- 633
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- Location
- Canadian Rockies
- Vehicle(s)
- 2015 JKU AspenX 5spd , 2015 JK Sport 6spd
I get that they are a leisure truck but if they had a payload that was rated to 1 tonne they would have a much better chance of cementing part of the market share due to many many people like me...
I understand what you’re saying, but you’re not appreciating the challenge of your market for Wrangler products. I’ll use the generic Wrangler in the example because JT production and supply vs demand is still unknown at this point with optimistic estimates it will outsell the JL/JLU combined, and others thinking it will follow a Toyota FJ life cycle.
The Export Wranglers are Halo PR products usually used to support other vehicles and to promote the brand, they aren’t made on usual supply & demand pricing/profit concerns, so much as providing an allocation of units to these markets to add some gravy to the main course. In order to justify units to capture foreign market share, production and pricing would need to change.
The Toyota and Mazda products you speak of NEED that market, they can’t exist through domestic production alone, whereas FCA could halt export sales of Wranglers completely and have less impact to overall sales than a slow domestic sales period. So the motivation to go after that bigger chunk of the export market is limited, especially when your available added production capacity is maybe another 12,000 units if they are lucky.
Now if the JT is received more mildly, then additional capacity opens up, and then they can start thinking of what they could do to start significantly increasing sales to those export markets where there are oppotunities, because an idle plant is worse than paying to ship units around the world.
However even that strategy faces challenges from people who want to use the JT platform/frame to make a longer JL to go after the 3 row large SUV market, which is also a hot high profit segment. Thankfully they already have the Wagooner and Grand Wagoneer coming to address that market, so that option might still be available.
Of course yet another option is, if the JT is a gang-busters success in the US... AND also a roaring success in the export market, then FCA could commit to an Export JT and then build a plant specifically for that roll, in which case it would make sense to move production to a region closer to the destination markets somthat it’s not constrained by oeftover capacity,mand actually is focused on competing of providing those regions with pricing and features better fit to their situation, and not simply rebadged vehicles who primary and almost sole focus is the N.American market and its needs.
Same thing happened in the past with Jeep vs LandRover and Toy, everyone commented on the vehicles’ visibility in far flung lands as success factors, but the reality is that LR and Yota NEEDED those markets to SURVIVE/EXIST, whereas Jeep and Ford could meet all their needs with domestic sales which often dwarfed the other two’s global sales. Only recently has the export market become a focus, but even then it’s a very specific focus, like the large population growing markets like China and India, or else selling an easy to make low cost option that is easy to get into export markets especially from more local production.
It’s not a question of thinking anyone can or can’t afford it or need/use it, but it’s tough to get past some the constraints that keep it from being more available worldwide.
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