Mary Nickerson, Toyota’s national marketing manager for advanced technology vehicles, helped turn the Prius into a brand name for the hybrid car via her passion for “green” technology. Nickerson grows organic wine grapes on her Murietta ranch, flies to work in a plane-pool, and donates Priuses to Yellowstone Park rangers. Nowhere have her efforts been more successful than the nation’s biggest car market, Southern California, where everyone from soccer moms to Leonardo DiCaprio has embraced the hybrid technology. This past July, Toyota Motor Corp. announced it would double worldwide production of all hybrid lines, which includes the Lexus RX300H and Highlander. As oil hits $70 per barrel and gasoline $3 a gallon, Nickerson is at the center of the transformation of her industry.
Question:
Have gasoline prices made marketing hybrids a no-brainer?
Answer:
It’s raised awareness. And if you take a snapshot of this moment in time, it might look a bit easier to sell a fuel-efficient technology. But there are myriad reasons why people buy cars, and gas consumption or mileage isn’t always at the top of their lists. We tend to think long term in the car industry Toyota has done modeling for 50 years out. The only real guarantee is that the trends you see now will change.
Q:
The road to a zero emission car is littered with crashes, such as the all-electric car. Why has hybrid technology caught on?
A:
It doesn’t require a big change in lifestyle. We already have the infrastructure for gasoline. The electric vehicle limits you to a 100-mile range on a full charge. That’s a pretty short string for people who live in Southern California and commute great distances.
Q:
What about hydrogen?
A:
Toyota’s vision for zero emission is to merge the best of all available technologies. Our hydrogen fuel cell vehicle also has the hybrid synergy drive-train, which means it’s powered by hydrogen fuel and an electric motor. We have 20 of those vehicles worldwide, and seven or eight here in California. The challenge with hydrogen is the large investment it will require to build a new infrastructure and perfect it as a stable fuel source. We also need the public to accept the new technology and ensure we can build enough product.
Q:
How did Toyota get so far ahead of Detroit with its hybrids?
A:
They keep us on our toes. Katsuaki Watanabe (president of Toyota Motor Corp.) has said that he wants to build a car that drives across the United States on a single tank of gas. He comes out with these bold and visionary statements that keep us excited about developing the market. The U.S. makes up roughly 80 percent of all Toyota hybrid sales worldwide, so they pay very close attention to what goes on here in Southern California.
Q:
So L.A is ground zero for the new hybrid technology?
A:
That’s true. You can’t throw a rock into L.A. traffic without hitting a Prius. But if you drove 1,000 miles in any radius outside of California, that ratio would rapidly diminish. In fact, hybrid sales only make up around 1 percent of the industry. The national trend has been power, size and style hunkering down in the biggest, loudest muscle car on the road.
Q:
Why is Detroit still making muscle cars?
A:
My answer would be that there is a demand for it. Plain and simple. As long as consumers are there, they’ll keep making that type of product. The U.S. automakers are recognizing that there is a hybrid market out there (too), and the proof is the new hybrid products they have coming out.
Q:
Will they ever catch up in hybrid technology and sales?
A:
That’s hard to project without knowing what the U.S. automakers have as far as production plans. But if you’re asking about current trends, I will say that having more hybrids from all the automakers will make the market grow much faster. I don’t think Detroit needs any more evidence that the hybrid technology is viable and worthwhile. We’re past the early adoption stage and moving more into the mainstream buyer. I hear that from all my dealers. They tell me the buyers coming in to buy hybrid cars are very much typical of their mainstream customers.
Q:
So what are you doing to expand hybrid’s appeal outside of Los Angeles?
A:
We market by region, and spot target print and media where demand is lower. You’ll see more TV ads in Chicago than here in California. Shows like “Desperate Housewives,” “Extreme Makeover Home Edition,” “Good Morning America” are running our spots, and that’s a fairly broad demographic. We also do “Monday Night Football,” “The Tonight Show” and David Letterman, which all have a very wide reach and hit those regions outside California. With radio we do a lot on NPR, which typifies the core hybrid buyer higher education, higher income, etc.
Q:
How about new media?
A:
We have a new Web site going live that’s called the Mini Hybrid Synergy Drive site. It will have two calculators on it one to show how much smog-forming emissions have been saved, and the other to show how many millions of gallons of gas are saved by driving our hybrids. With these calculators you can do a comparison with the car you presently drive and our hybrids, and a cumulative comparison over the life of the car.
Q:
What’s been your favorite campaign?
A:
The work we did with the National Parks. We donated over 20 advanced technology vehicles to different parks in the system and four Priuses to interpretive rangers in Yellowstone. They go to wildlife jams where everyone stops in the middle of the street to look at bears or bison or deer, and the rangers have to sort everything out. They said the attitude of park-goers is completely different when they drive up in a Prius. They’re greeted and asked questions about the environment and the wildlife.
Q:
Have you targeted Hollywood? Everyone from Kate Bosworth to Larry David has helped to market the Prius.
A:
We’ve been fortunate that certain high-profile industry people want to live their values. They know consumerism can be driven by the entertainment business and driving cars that provide cleaner-air solutions can have an impact. But we didn’t target Hollywood per se. In fact, most of the celebrities contacted us first, through their business agents. They wanted to go to the Oscars in Priuses, not limos.
Q:
I’ve heard that the Hollywood people you’ve lunched with apologize for their Mercedes when the valet drives up.
A:
(Laughing) I have had that experience. They’ve said, “I’m just driving this until I can get my Prius, Mary. Please don’t be upset with me!”
Q:
How did you get the job at Toyota?
A:
My background is in electronics. I worked for Hughes for many years procuring parts for satellite and defense systems. I worked on NASA’s LANDSAT program. I was at Delco Electronics in Santa Barbara when a headhunter from Toyota recruited me. My family is down here: I went to high school in Palos Verdes, so the timing was right.
Q:
Did you have any experience in the automotive business?
A:
Hughes is owned by General Motors, and I had a few chances to visit Detroit. Mostly, I’ve just always loved and had an interest in cars. My first one was a muscle car a big stick shift Camaro that guzzled gasoline.
Q:
What kind of car do you drive now?
A:
A Prius. And my husband does, too. My son is graduating high school this year and he drives a Scion. He came to me with a really serious look one day and said, “mom, I’m going away to college soon. I think it’s time I got a Prius.” It was his way of transitioning into a responsible adult.
Q:
With the Prius you can ride in any car pool lane in the state. Why do you fly a plane to work?
A:
I don’t fly the plane myself. I’m part of a plane-pool that I use when it works with my schedule. The days I’m not flying to work, I’m car-pooling in a Prius, in the car pool lane.
