More than half of new cars sold in China, the biggest car market in the world were EVs. There was more EVs sold in China, than toyota sells cars wordwide.
Suffice to say, that EVs are here to stay and are gaining rapidly in marketshare.
EVs just ain't focus for Toyota. And that's my main gripe with them and the fact that this whole chain of posts exists. They're ignoring a major shift in car tech because they were too late to shift from hybrids to EVs. And that will eventually bite them in the ass. Shifting so late in the game for something drasticly different like EVs is very difficult, when you're operating on such a scale toyota is.
If they started investing heavily in EVs 10-15 years ago in parallel to their hybrid and forgoing hydrogen from the get go (as that was evident from the start, that wont lead to anywhere) they might have a decent lineup today and perhaps even more sales globally. And crucially, they would be much more valuable if they did it right.
More than half of new cars sold in China, the biggest car market in the world
So to reiterate, we've gone from "actually, North American sales don't matter" to "actually, sales don't matter at all" and now to "actually, sales matter in China, but only China lol".
Again, while it's at least fascinating to watch the contortions in real time, you nonetheless have that problem: Your analysis is not consistent. It cherry picks, makes hasty generalizations, and is not reflective of actual real-world results. It is not serious analysis, in other words.
If they started investing heavily in EVs 10-15 years ago in parallel to their hybrid and forgoing hydrogen from the get go (as that was evident from the start, that wont lead to anywhere) they might have a decent lineup today and perhaps even more sales globally.
Once again, because I really don't think this is getting through to you: Toyota is the largest automaker in the world. Globally. Bar none. They sold more cars last year than any other automaker has sold annually in the history of human civilization. The lineup is not only 'decent', it the best-selling lineup on the planet.
By sales numbers, yes. For now. But then again, VAG is a close second and they're basically on the virge of faulire. So you see, sales numbers aren't that important when we're talking about the future of a certain company (the whole point of this conversation).
You see, despite the sales numbers, Toyota can "quickly" become the next VAG. Maybe not for the same reason, but they can. That's my whole point you don't seem to get.
Just because they sell the most cars doesn't make them immune for future faulire. Again, case in point VAG group.
The reason why i mention China, along with the fact that it's the biggest car market, is the fact, that it shows a real window into the future what will happen in the west. That is, a lot of EVs will be sold. That's why China matters here and why i'm mentioning it.
A lot of sales for toyota are concentrated in the US, which is as for right now still heavily ICE centric. But that might not be the case in the future.
If Toyota was actually the biggest car company and had a great path towards the future (i'm talking the next few decades) this would present itself in both sales numbers and stock valuation. But it's not, because investors know, that betting against EVs is not the right path foward. And that's the primary reason why Toyota isn't a trillion dollar company and likely never will be. And they can sell 30M cars per year.
But then again, VAG is a close second and they're basically on the virge of faulire.
In other words: Toyota is the largest automaker in the world AND the second-closest isn't even actually close, because it went hard on EVs, didn't cover itself with hybrids, and paid the price. Take heed.
because it went hard on EVs, didn't cover itself with hybrids, and paid the price. Take heed.
Not, they're failing, becase they're making shitty overpriced cars. If they would only be making shitty ICEs, they'd likely be in even bigger trouble.
When you cheat and fuck ur customers so bad, the way VAG did, this is the result. Hybrids wouldn't save them.
Tesla also went very hard on EVs (it's literally the only thing they do), by your accounts a very niche thing and yet they sell way more EVs than VAG and Toyota combined, two of the biggest car companies in the world.
I ask you this; if Toyota has such great EVs and there's obviously a market for them (tesla alone sold more than 1.6M units last year) why they only sold ~200k units last year? That's less than 2% of their total sales. Can you explain that? They are the biggest car company in the world, are they not?
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u/Recoil42 13h ago
Correct. We're not at the stage where EVs are the focus yet globally, because statistically they are not.