In the race to build cars with digitally connected services — such as the ability to order coffee via a dashboard display — Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. risk being held back by their home market.
In contrast to vehicle buyers in the U.S. and Europe, Japanese consumers are reluctant to pay for such features. That has resulted in only 10 percent of cars on Japan's roads having embedded connectivity, compared with 49 percent in the U.S., 31 percent in Europe and 20 percent in China, according to consultancy SBD Automotive.
The threat to the Japanese carmakers — which control almost all of their home market and do a major part of their product development there — is that competitors may pull ahead as global demand for connected services continues to increase.