Toyota speeds up SmartPath rollout

Toyota Motor North America has quadrupled its capacity to launch its dealerships on SmartPath, the digital retailing platform that, under a new upgrade, can let consumers buy new vehicles without setting foot in a store.

David Christ, head of Toyota Division, said dealers were told during last week's make meeting that "it's go time" for those who want to make the leap.

"If any dealer is interested, we are adding the capacity to bring them on board and get them utilizing the system," Christ told Automotive News. He said Toyota Motor North America has staffed up its "launch factory," in which dealerships are prepared for the digital retailing platform with the help of a factory team. The process takes about six weeks.

"What's important is this isn't just a technology plug-in, so we don't just come in and establish the technology. We really helped to deal with some of the behavioral change, and process change that's needed to really succeed," he said.

Now, only Wilson Toyota in Ames, Iowa, is running the fully updated SmartPath suite. Christ said 100 other dealerships are in some phase of the launch factory, and Toyota Motor North America believes it has capacity to launch more than 30 dealers per month.

"We can get really significant critical mass of our dealers in about two to three years," Christ said.

Robby Findlay, chairman of the Toyota National Dealer Advisory Council, said Christ was asked in the meeting whether SmartPath would ever be required, and dealers were told that it would not be.

Also in the meeting, Findlay said, a dealer asked why the Land Cruiser was discontinued in the United States after a 63-year run. Christ said that the once spartan and rugged off-roader had morphed into a luxury vehicle, but he "left dealers hopeful that Toyota was trying to find a new vehicle to plug [into our lineup] under that nameplate," Findlay said.

Christ also reiterated to dealers that Toyota planned to keep its existing facilities requirements in place, despite the growing shift to digital retailing, Findlay said.