David Fickling, Columnist

Two-Speed America for Subaru and Mazda

The two best-run carmakers in the world face diverging fortunes as tariffs rise.

January 24, 2017 at 4:28 AM UTC

David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering climate change and energy. Previously, he worked for Bloomberg News, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

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President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade accord is bad (if unsurprising) news for all of Japan's automakers. There are two that face an outsized impact -- Mazda Motor Corp. and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the maker of Subaru.

The pair have much in common. In operational terms, they're the best-run companies in the industry -- the only major carmakers to crack returns on invested capital above 10 percent. Production-wise, they're the most "Japanese" of Japan's carmakers, with the greatest share of global output happening on home turf. In volume terms, they're relative minnows. But what they lack in size, they make up for in customer loyalty, inspired by their meaty performance (Mazda) and sensible, outdoorsy image (Subaru).