Toyota Motor Corp. has installed a new leader at its joint venture company, Advics Co. Ltd. The braking systems supplier’s new chief is Satoshi Ogiso, 54, a former Toyota global product planning guru and longtime development leader for its Prius family of hybrid vehicles.
Ogiso's mission is to guide Advics into the new era by integrating old school mechanical braking technology with the new high tech digital controls that run everything from hybrid battery recharging and pre-crash emergency stopping to four wheel drive traction features and adaptive cruise control.
Demand for advanced braking systems will soar as safety regulations and assessments increasingly require advanced driver assistance systems, such as pre-crash emergency braking, according to Ogiso.
Ogiso also will oversee Advics’ technical center opening this month in Kariya, Japan, and its first factory in Mexico scheduled to start production in March. That plant, in Lagos de Moreno in the state of Jalisco, initially will employ 130 workers and manufacture drum brakes.
Advics ' global sales grew 3.1% to $4.41 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31. Toyota accounted for about 70% of that business, with Nissan, Daihatsu, Mitsubishi, Isuzu and Suzuki fleshing out the next tier of customers.
Toyota owns a 9% stake in Advics.
Advics designs and manufactures brake systems and components for most of the major automakers. Advics was founded in 2001 as a joint venture of Toyota, Aisin Seiki Co., Denso Corp. and Sumitomo Electric Industries. Today, Advics has 6,790 employees worldwide and factories around the globe, including plants in Ohio, Georgia and Indiana. Advics North America, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary.
