Thus the chip war deflates Toyota’s plans
The Japanese auto giant forced to cut production estimates by 500 thousand units due to the absence of semiconductors. Half-year profit drops to 1.171 trillion from 1.524 trillion in April-September 2021. Why '22 was a really busy year for Toyota
If 2021 had ended in the best way for Toyota, with sales that confirmed its overtaking, in the States, on American brands (this is the first time this has happened), 2022 on the contrary proved to be a harbinger of pitfalls.
TOYOTA'S BUTTERFLY 2022
First of all, the Group does not at all like the race towards electricity undertaken by Europe and the United States, its main reference markets. This can be understood from the pressure made by the House on overseas policy to facilitate the development of alternative fuels. The latest, most important, statement to this effect was made by Jack Hollis , executive vice president of sales for Toyota Motor North America, during a webinar hosted by the Automotive Press Association: "I don't think the US market is ready," he said. Hollis without using any kind of caution. “I don't think the infrastructure is ready. And even if you were ready to buy one, and if you could afford it … the price is still too high. "
The exponent of the US branch gave the example of hybrid penetration: "It took 25 years to reach less than 10% market share for the hybrid, which is affordable, which is made with resources. available". Toyota, in addition to believing that more space should be left, at least in the initial phase of the farewell to endothermic engines, to hybrids, is among the manufacturers that is investing more resources in hydrogen, especially with reference to heavy vehicles. Toyota, Isuzu Motors Limited, Denso Corporation and Commercial Japan Partnership Technologies Corporation have announced that they have initiated a joint program to research and develop new solutions for the use of hydrogen in heavy vehicles. Also part of the joint venture was Hino Motors, ousted following the dieselgate scandal (more on that shortly).
ELECTRIC OR HYDROGEN CARS?
It is not the first time that Toyota has looked at the use of hydrogen as a fuel in traditional engines: from May 2021, for example, a Toyota Corolla with an internal combustion engine fueled by hydrogen has competed in the Japanese Super Taikyu Series sports championship. The ultimate goal of the study is to use clean fuel to power the internal combustion engines of trucks, so as to facilitate the achievement of CO2 neutrality.
Toyota has hinted that it prefers hydrogen to the electric solution because it does not require revolutions on the front of the platforms nor does it require the manufacturers to equip themselves with plants for the construction of batteries. Furthermore, on the user front, the charging times would take a maximum of 5 minutes and in the event of an accident the cars are not subject to fires that can affect the battery cells. However, since Europe and the US are moving to increase the infrastructure of electricity columns, hydrogen is unlikely to be the solution to invest in, at least in the immediate future.
In the Japanese archipelago, the gloomy words of Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda echo in his dual role as number 1 of one of the major Japanese manufacturers and president of the automobile association of car manufacturers of the nation of the Rising Sun: "The Japan is dependent on exports, therefore, carbon neutrality equates to an employment issue for the country. Some politicians say we need to turn all cars into electric vehicles or that the manufacturing industry is obsolete, but I don't think that's the case. To protect the jobs and consequently also the lives of the Japanese, I think it is necessary to look to our future by working in the right direction so far ”.
Exactly one year ago, the ceo Toyoda had brought in support of his thesis on the need to proceed with a more reasoned and less sudden ecological transition the fact that Japan produces about 10 million vehicles a year, of which about 50% are exported: well, forecasts assume that the Japanese industry can produce 8 million vehicles per year only with the contribution of combustion engines, including hybrids and Phevs, even in 2030, while their elimination by law will paralyze the labor market .
"This means that production of 8 million units would be lost and the industry could risk having to give up most of the 5.5 million jobs," Toyoda warned. "If internal combustion engines are the enemy, we will probably no longer be able to produce almost all the vehicles we assemble today with all the negative consequences that this situation would have for our economy". Toyota has thus attracted the fierce criticism of environmentalists, who claim that the giant of the Rising Sun is not embracing electric mobility with due enthusiasm.
THE PROBLEMS OF THE BZ4X AND THE HINO MOTORS SCANDAL
And, as if that weren't enough, its first electric SUV, the bz4X showed technical problems such that it had to recall the cars that arrived at the dealerships and had to announce the suspension of line 1 at the Motomachi plant, which was only recently resumed.
But that wasn't Toyota's only stumbling block on the green front. A few weeks ago, in fact, a scandal broke out that overwhelmed Hino Motors Ltd , a truck and bus manufacturer controlled by Toyota, which immediately distanced itself about the conduct that led the reality led by CEO Yoshio Shimo to falsify the data for years, maybe decades. The boundaries of the scandal are not very clear, so much so that the same company has announced other stops to shipments of vehicles abroad.
THE CLOSURE IN RUSSIA
While the consequences of the closure of the Russian market are still not understood. Toyota, which had suspended production, like many other multinationals, since March, following the problems of the supply chain blocked by the first sanctions imposed by the West, immediately after the summer pulled down the shutters of the The St. Petersburg plant , which had a capacity of 100,000 units a year, employed around 2,300 people and assembled the Camry and RAV4 models, must certainly not have been a light-hearted decision.
THE CHIP CRISIS SLOWS DOWN TOYOTA
The latest problem for Toyota is actually also the first: the insufficiency of semiconductors which, despite the many claims to the contrary pitted during the year, forced the Japanese manufacturer to review down the global production of half a million vehicles for the current fiscal year. The latest move announced by the Group seems to have been of no use: temporarily setting aside smart keys to return to traditional ones that do not require chips, as reported by the Energia Oltre news agency.
The estimates on the output were thus reduced from 9.7 million to 9.2 million, both for the well-known difficulties in finding the chips, but also for the procurement of other materials. The weakening of the yen by more than 20% against the dollar since the beginning of the year, on the other hand, has improved the estimates on revenues to 36,000 billion yen (240 billion euros), compared to the 34,500 forecast. On the other hand, those on profits, fixed at 2.36 trillion, and on operating income, remained stable at 2.4 trillion. The operating result for the first half of 2023 is estimated at 1.141 trillion from the 1.747 trillion of April September 2021 due to the surge in the prices of materials (765 billion) and costs (310 billion).
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/cosi-la-guerra-dei-chip-sgonfia-i-piani-di-toyota/ on Wed, 02 Nov 2022 09:37:29 +0000.