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Toyota, as an individual brand, is the one that sells the most cars in the world. But as a conglomerate, it has lost its leadership to the Volkswagen Group in recent years. While there is no way to question the importance of the Japanese brand in the automotive industry, there is also no surprise at the recent statements by its CEO, Akio Toyoda, grandson of the brand’s founder, Kiichiro Toyoda, who a time has decided to change the focus as a chassis company for the automotive industry for 83 years.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Akio Toyoda was questioned that Toyota has been overtaken by the market capitalization of Tesla, a manufacturer whose production is not expected to exceed half a million vehicles, against the Japanese group’s more than 10 million. This while the American producer has exceeded 400 billion on the stock exchange, against 200 billion for the Japanese.
The question must have been interpreted by the CEO as a challenge, especially from an American company such as Tesla. Hence the answer: “Tesla may think it has the revenue it serves as a standard for the future and we are losing the value of the shares. But when it comes to products, Toyota has a comprehensive menu that will win customers over. “If Bloomberg didn’t notice at first, Akio Toyoda decided to specify,” Tesla isn’t doing anything real, so people are just buying the recipe. But we have a real kitchen and we produce real food. “
After this (premature) reaction of the Japanese CEO, which is unusual among the executives of the Land of the Rising Sun, at least in public, it remains to be seen whether the apparent malaise is due to the fact that Toyota has scrapped the investment in 50 million that earned Tesla in 2010 and sold it in 2017, when the stock traded at $ 62 mid-year, far from the $ 429 it closed last Friday.
The alternative, to explain Akio Toyoda’s heated claims, is that the CEO has tested the brand’s first trams and realized that the main course is still far from the competitors’ starters. The simplest way will be to repeat the Supra recipe, in which Toyota acquired the restaurant, the chef and the recipe for BMW, and quickly got a sports car to match, even with the chassis, engine and suspension of the Z4.
It should be remembered that Tesla’s first factory, in Fremont, California, once belonged to Toyota and General Motors, before closing due to lack of customer interest in some of the “dishes” that came out of that kitchen.
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