{"id":155335,"date":"2020-11-09T10:10:35","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T15:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=155335"},"modified":"2020-11-09T14:04:58","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T19:04:58","slug":"tesla-now-worth-more-than-all-japanese-automakers-but-toyotas-ceo-isnt-impressed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2020\/11\/tesla-now-worth-more-than-all-japanese-automakers-but-toyotas-ceo-isnt-impressed\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla Now Worth More Than All Japanese Automakers, But Toyota\u2019s CEO Isn\u2019t Impressed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda suggested Tesla isn’t a serious automotive company yet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tesla shares dipped nearly 2% Friday but still closed at nearly $430 a share, giving the upstart automaker a market capitalization of $408 billion. To save you the math, that\u2019s more than all seven of the mainstream Japanese automakers \u2013 including giant Toyota which has a market valuation of \u201cjust\u201d $189 billion.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t sit well with Akio Toyoda, the Toyota CEO who all but sniffed at his American rival during an earnings call. While the grandson of the company\u2019s founder did start out with a bit of praise for Tesla\u2019s meteoric rise, he went on to suggest it wasn\u2019t a serious player in the automotive market, at least not yet.<\/p>\n

“Tesla says that their recipe will be the standard in the future, but what Toyota has is a real kitchen and a real chef,” the 64-year-old Toyoda said, responding to a reporter\u2019s question.<\/p>\n

(Despite record Q3 results, Tesla stock only gets small bump.)<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Toyota remains committed to its line-up of hybrids and plug-in hybrids.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“We are losing when it comes to the share price,” he added. “But when it comes to products, we have a full menu that will be chosen by customers.”<\/p>\n

Toyota finished 2019 as number two in the global sales sweepstakes, just behind German rival Volkswagen AG. Tesla is hoping to finish 2020 with all-time-high volume of around 500,000, That total is barely 5% of Toyota\u2019s, which hit 10.74 million sales last year, though volume will be off in 2020 due to pandemic-related issues.<\/p>\n

But Toyoda is learning a lesson that his Detroit rivals have already had to come to grips with: that Wall Street and investors don\u2019t see Tesla playing in the same game. At least, that\u2019s what they\u2019re sticking with while CEO Elon Musk lays out plans to rapidly expand production, with Tesla\u2019s Shanghai plant accelerating operations and new plants under construction in near Berlin and Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n

(Tesla shipping Model 3 sedans from Shanghai to Europe.)<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The stock price gap was a central issue during General Motors\u2019 earnings call last week, CEO Mary Barra repeatedly hammered on its flat numbers by market analysts. For her part, Barra said she believes that GM\u2019s unexpectedly strong earnings, as well as its push into electrification \u201cwill change the way customers and investors will view our company.\u201d But that isn\u2019t happening yet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s quickly expanding EV company is still lacking, Toyoda says.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Toyota may have a long history \u2013 and a real chef \u2013 the company is facing the same sort of challenges as its rivals: how to meet changing government mandates and consumer demands. So far, Tesla is the only automaker, at least outside of China, to make a real successful push into the battery-electric vehicle market. Of all its major, traditional competitors, Toyota has been one of the most reluctant to follow its lead.<\/p>\n

Toyota is still focused on conventional hybrids and is dipping its toes deeper into the waters of plug-in hybrids. But it remains reluctant to shift focus to pure BEVs. Even little Aston Martin and ultra-luxurious Bentley have announced more aggressive programs, the latter, a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, last week announced that it will be using 100% BEV powertrains by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n

When will Toyota jump in is a big question, and Toyoda and other company officials have hinted in recent months that they could \u2013 and would \u2013 move quickly once that decision is made. The Nikkei recently reported that Toyota has laid out internal plans of reaching sales of 500,000 BEVs annually by mid-decade.<\/p>\n

(Toyota surprises analysts, turns small Q1 profit.)<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Perhaps when the plan is fully outlined and truly competitive offerings are unveiled, then investors will begin to view Toyota in the same light as Tesla.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tesla shares dipped nearly 2% Friday but still closed at nearly $430 a share, giving the upstart automaker a market capitalization of $408 billion \u2014 more than twice Toyota’s market cap. However, that impressive number didn’t stop the Japanese automaker’s CEO Akio Toyoda from throwing shade at the EV maker, reports TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,12,9],"tags":[],"make":[110,111],"post-state":[],"category_old":[118,140,286,150,151,123,287,131,319,289,155,299,316,132,130,284,125,124,137,139,148,290,128,291,207,206,288],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155335"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155335"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=155335"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=155335"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=155335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}