- Toyota President Akio Toyoda took a direct shot at Elon Musk and Tesla during a presentation last week.
- Toyoda, whose grandfather founded the legendary Japanese automaker, said Tesla is like a chef with a recipe.
- “They haven’t built a real business yet or created a real world yet,” he said.
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If running an auto toy company is like running a restaurant, Toyota has full business while Tesla is just a chef in some dishes, says the president of Japanese companies.
Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the founder of AutoTomeker, made this comparison while discussing his electrification plan during Toyota’s second quarter financial presentation on Friday.
“We and Tesla have working units that we don’t have – more than 100 million vehicles in the world,” he said before launching Food-Service Simultaneity.
“Tesla’s business, if I may say so, is like a business – you can use the analogy of kitchen and chef, I think,” he continued. “Kitchen and chef, they haven’t built a real business or a real world yet, but they’re trying to trade dishes. And the chef says, ‘Well, our recipe will become the standard of the world in the future.’ That’s the decent thing to do, and it should end there. “
Toyoda, on the other hand, has a real kitchen and “also a real chef,” Toyoda said, claiming to be doubled by the company from its full-year profit outlook. For comparison, Tesla says it will build 500,000 cars this year, compared to Toyota’s annual sales of 10 million worldwide in 2019. Tesla will also have to turn in annual profits.
Despite the discrepancy in sales, Tesla’s Toyota was almost doubled in price. It’s not lost on Toyoda.
“And of course, given the current share price, we’re losing against their valuation.” “But when it comes to products, we have a whole menu that will be chosen by customers.”
Beyond Toyota, the majority of legacy auto tomers have begun to gradually put full-pressure behind their electric vehicle development. Germany’s Volkswagen, whose executives are also clear about Tesla’s lead in the industry.
read more: Volkswagen’s Tesla Rivals are finally here: Meet the ID4, a cheaper alternative to the Model Y, designed to sell against America’s most popular cars.
