The world's largest car company is Japan's Toyota.
On January 30, Toyota Motor released a report that the Toyota Group will sell 10.483 million vehicles worldwide in 2022. So far, Toyota Motor's sales have ranked first in the world for three consecutive years.
But the "world's largest car company" has gradually failed to keep up with the times.
As early as two years ago, Toyota's market capitalization had been surpassed by Tesla, followed closely by BYD, another new energy vehicle company.
The global auto industry is vying for the new energy market, but obviously, Toyota is left behind.
Seemingly feeling the crisis, Toyota recently issued a personnel announcement stating that Akio Toyoda is about to step down as the 11th president, and the position of president will be handed over to the "Minister of Foreign Surnames" Tsuneharu Sato by Toyota's eldest grandson.
Akio Toyoda, who was ordered to step in when the company suffered serious losses, once brought Toyota back to the world's number one sales position, but also because of his hesitation and swing on pure circuit lines, Toyota's transformation in the wave of electrification was slow.
Akio Toyoda retired voluntarily and handed over to the "old Toyota man" who has a research and development background and worked in a company for life for 30 years. Can he compete head-on with the electric car business of car companies represented by Tesla and BYD? Still unknown.
Japan's Toyota Motor has changed its president for the first time in the past 14 years, and Tsuneji Sato will succeed Akio Toyoda, the third-generation descendant of the corporate family.
(Reuters)
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In the spring of 2009, Toyota Motor announced its financial report for the previous year, with a total loss of 437 billion yen.
It was Toyota's first loss since World War II.
Toyota was hit hard by a slump in U.S. sales as the auto market slumped due to the global recession triggered by the Lehman crisis.
It was against this background that Akio Toyoda succeeded Watanabe Katsuaki as the president, the so-called "ordered in times of crisis".
Akio Toyoda has been in office for 14 years, and several sets of data can show his achievements: Before Akio Toyoda took office, the stock price of Toyota Motor was as low as $55, but last year the highest stock price exceeded $210, almost quadrupling; In 2019, Toyota sold only 7.56 million vehicles, and in fiscal year 2021, it sold more than 9.51 million vehicles, nearly 2 million more vehicles, ranking first in the world; before Akio Toyoda took office, he had a loss of 436.8 billion yen. Profit, the profit in fiscal year 2021 will reach nearly 3 trillion yen.
Although it has gone through many tests such as the Lehman crisis, large-scale recall, Japanese tsunami, chip shortage, new crown epidemic, supply chain problems, etc., under the leadership of Akio Toyoda, Toyota Motor has grown steadily. On the throne of the global car company sales crown.
If we only compare the development of Toyota Motor in the past ten years, it can be said that Akio Toyoda has done a very good job.
However, if the industry is compared horizontally, it may be full of sense of crisis.
In June 2020, Tesla's market value surpassed that of Toyota Motor, becoming the world's largest car company by market value, and it has remained so until now.
And BYD rushed all the way to the third place in market value with the momentum of breaking bamboo, followed by Toyota.
Tesla and BYD are attacking Toyota up and down, and they all have one thing in common-making pure electric vehicles.
And this is precisely the automobile development route that Akio Toyoda has not agreed with for a long time.
Akio Toyoda has never agreed that the pure circuit line is the future goal of the automobile industry. He insists on the research and development of internal combustion engine, hybrid and hydrogen energy technology. He hopes to find a new energy road with Toyota characteristics between these routes. road.
He has repeatedly emphasized on many occasions that electric vehicles are overhyped and are not actually environmentally friendly.
He even bluntly stated that he is a "reactionary of pure electric vehicles", a posture that is incompatible with electric vehicles.
Global EV sales to reach 10% market share for the first time in 2022
Akio Toyoda insists that he is a supporter of electric vehicles, but believes that the process of decarbonization to achieve carbon neutrality requires more than electric vehicles.
(Reuters)
However, as the recognition of electric vehicles in the market increased, his tone began to soften.
He said: "What kind of car to choose is not up to us, but to the markets and consumers in various places. We hope to provide consumers with as many options as possible before the final correct route is clear."
It cannot be concluded that Akio Toyoda’s idea must be wrong, and disputes over routes are also normal in manufacturing companies.
But the current industry fact is that Toyota has obviously lagged behind its opponents in the pure electric field because of its own choice.
A few hours before Akio Toyoda announced his resignation as president, Tesla handed over record-setting operating results for 2022-full-year sales of 1.3 million vehicles, gross profit of 20.3 billion US dollars, and a profit margin of 28.5%.
This profit margin is almost three times that of Toyota's average per car.
With such profits, even Toyota, which no longer wants to build pure electric cars, will find it difficult to sit still.
But to some extent, it is precisely because of Akio Toyoda's contempt that Tesla and BYD and other pure electric forces have taken the lead in the electrification wave.
As the helm of the company, he should blame himself.
Missed Tesla: Akio Toyoda bought a 2.4% stake in Tesla for US$50 million in 2012 and bet on the development of electric vehicles, but unfortunately gave up due to unstable battery quality.
The picture shows that in November 2010, Musk presented Akio Toyoda with the key to the Tesla Roadster electric car.
(Reuters)
Change to technology flow to pursue new energy?
At the Toyota press conference at the end of 2021, 16 pure electric models including the Lexus brand were released in one go. Toyota also released the "2030 New Energy Strategy" and proposed a research and development plan of 4 trillion yen, which will be released before 2030 30 EV (pure electric vehicle) models, Lexus will be 100% electrified in 2035, changing the direction of electrification implemented since 2018 (ie EV, PHEV, HEV, FCV simultaneously).
But Toyota's first pure electric work stumbled.
The first mass-produced pure electric vehicle bZ4X - according to Akio Toyoda, the first half of "bZ" means "beyond Zero", which means Toyota's pure electric vision beyond zero emissions; the second half of "4X" in "X" means "cross-border vehicle", and "4" refers to RAV4 Rongfang.
As a result, as soon as the bZ4X was launched, it was urgently recalled globally due to the risk of tire falling off.
Then it was revealed that the battery life in winter has shrunk seriously, and the achievement rate is only 37%; the dual-motor four-wheel drive version accelerates slower than the single-motor front-drive version; the charging time is too long, and it cannot be fully charged.
Toyota, which has always been safe and reliable, has become like this in the field of electric vehicles. This really makes people doubt whether it is really doing electric vehicles well.
The pioneering work of Toyota's electric vehicle track can be described as Waterloo.
Today's changes in Toyota personnel can also be understood as following the flow of technology.
Shortly after the launch of Toyota's first pure electric vehicle, the bZ4X, it needed to be recycled due to the risk of tire falling off.
(Toyota official website)
Toyota has changed its president for the first time in 14 years, a Jedi twist on the electric car track?
On January 26, YouTube's Toyota official channel hosted a live broadcast called "Toyota Times Global".
The current president of Toyota, Uchiyamada Takeshi, asked Akio Toyoda a question that everyone is most concerned about - why did he choose Tsuneji Sato as the next generation president?
"The first is youth, and the second is liking cars. These are the two most basic conditions. In addition, he has fully practiced Toyota's thinking, technology and code of conduct. He is the best candidate in my heart." Toyota Zhang Nan said.
Sato, who graduated from the Faculty of Science and Engineering of Waseda University in 1992, devoted himself to the front-line R&D department as soon as he entered Toyota.
He has participated in the development of components for Prius, VISTA, Camry and other models.
He was transferred to the research and development team of Toyota's luxury brand Lexus in 2005 due to his favorable comments.
After working for more than ten years, he achieved the position of chief engineer.
It can be said that he has climbed to the highest peak of technical staff at the R&D level.
Entering the management team starts from 2017. In this year, Sato was promoted to the executive director of Toyota.
In 2020, he was appointed as the president of Lexus, became an executive officer of Toyota in the same year, and served as Toyota's chief brand officer (CBO) in 2021.
Akio Toyoda and Tsuneji Sato (left) test drive Lexus' first electric car, the RZ, in Japan.
(Reuters)
From the perspective of stereotypes, compared with those old fritters who have been "intriguing" in the senior management for a long time, front-line employees have relatively pure ideas and pay more attention to the product itself than interpersonal communication. For a manufacturing company, knowing " A leader who knows how to make a good car is obviously more precious than a leader who knows how to manage employees well.
With Tsuneji Sato's appointment, Toyota may have the opportunity to turn a new page.
On the point of embracing electrification, Hengji Sato turned around faster than Akio Toyoda.
Perhaps that is why he became the man Akio Toyoda hoped to win in the "Electric Vehicle Battle".
But Sato also doesn't seem like someone who would quickly change Toyota's strategy.
In addition, considering the transformation pressure faced by Toyota, how to find Toyota's advantages in the pure electric route is not easy for Sato, who was born as a technical expert.
In contrast, BYD's development momentum is astonishing.
According to the data released by BYD for the first half of 2022, the company's sales of new energy vehicles in the first half of the year exceeded 640,000.
This means that BYD has surpassed Tesla to become the world's largest producer of electric vehicles by sales.
By October, sales of BYD's new energy passenger vehicles reached 217,800 units, an increase of 168.78% year-on-year, exceeding 200,000 units for two consecutive months; after hitting a record high in September, Tesla China's delivery volume in October declined. The Shanghai factory delivered 71,700 vehicles in October, which was lower than the delivery volume in September, and compared with BYD, it was less than one-third of BYD.
BYD has been deeply involved in the field of new energy for a long time. It is a strong competitor in the global electric vehicle field and has obvious advantages in the field of batteries and batteries.
In this way, it may only be a matter of time before Toyota is surpassed by BYD.
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