The Toyota Motor logo will be unveiled at the company’s car showroom in Tokyo on February 6, 2019.
Cashew Nogi | AFP | Getty Images
During Toyota Motors’ earnings review on Friday, officials answered questions about how they plan to compete in the wider field of electric vehicles, and took a potash shot at Tesla’s sky-high valuation.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda has acknowledged that Tesla’s value is about 400 400 billion higher in the sky, higher than all seven Japanese automakers combined.
He also said Toyota could learn from investors with Tesla’s success and its business model, which includes revenue from electric vehicles, regulatory credits, software and renewable energy products.
But, the executive compares Tesla’s business to restaurants that promote its dishes, while Toyota is already like a restaurant serving a large number of customers.
Toyoda said, “I’m hesitant to say this – Tesla’s business, if you want to use analogy, is like a kitchen and a chef.”
“They haven’t created a real business in the real world yet. They’re trying to trade recipes. The chef says ‘our recipe will become the world standard in the future!’ At Toyota, we also have a real kitchen and a real chef, and are already making dishes. There are customers who like what they eat, sitting in front of us, and already eating our dishes. “
Toyoda noted that his company makes and sells more volume and variety of cars than Tesla, today referring to the 100 million Toyota vehicles owned by individuals, fleets and other customers. Toyota expects to sell approximately 7.5 million vehicles during its 2021 fiscal year, starting April 1, 2020.
Tesla expects to sell 500,000 electric vehicles by 2020.
Toyoda called Toyota’s offering furring a “complete menu lineup,” referring to the company’s internal combustion engine, hybrid, pure battery electric and fuel cell electric vehicles.
Toyota popularized hybrid electric vehicles with its Prius line, which began selling in 1997. It also built a limited number of battery-powered electric RAV-4s, which it produced in partnership with Tesla.
But Toyota did not commit to high volumes of pure battery-powered electric vehicles by the end of last year. At a time when the company announced a joint venture with one of Tesla’s biggest competitors on the global stage, the battery made BYD to electric vehicle manufacturers in China.
Although Toyota’s profits have fallen in its most recent quarter, the company has seen%% more sales growth than the broader aut toy industry, which is recovering from an epidemic in China in the first half of the calendar year.
With signs of recovery on the horizon, Toyota also more than doubled its full-year forecast. The company now expects a profit margin of 1.3 trillion yen, or about .6 12.6 billion, for the year to March 2021. (Earlier it was expected to make a profit of 500 billion yen.)
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