Toyota Motor Corp’s profit for the first fiscal quarter jumped to 1.3 trillion yen — a quarterly record for Japan’s top automaker — as sales grew and parts shortages related to the coronavirus pandemic eased.
Toyota’s April-June net profit rose 78% from 736.8 billion yen the previous year, the company reported Tuesday. Quarterly sales edged up 24% to 10.5 trillion yen ($74 billion) as vehicle sales improved on-year across major markets, including Japan and North America.
The difficulty obtaining computer chips that crimped auto production in recent years has eased, although it's unclear when that will get totally fixed, according to Toyota.
Quarterly sales totaled 2.3 million vehicles, up from 2 million the previous year. Demand for its hybrid models was especially strong. Toyota has long been a leader in hybrids, which switch back and forth between an electric motor and gas engine to deliver higher mileage.
The maker of the Prius hybrid, Camry sedan and Lexus luxury models said it was making good progress on selling battery electric vehicles.
During the quarter, Toyota sold 29,000 EVs, up from 4,000 vehicles sold the same period a year ago.
Koji Sato, who took over as chief executive from Akio Toyoda earlier this year, is promising an aggressive shift on electrification. He has acknowledged Toyota fell behind in electric vehicles, but he also stressed it’s going to catch up.
Toyota maintained its annual forecast to earn 2.58 trillion yen ($18 billion), up 5% from the previous fiscal year, on 38 trillion yen ($267 billion) in sales, up 2%.
Toyota shares rose more than 2% in Tokyo trading.
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22 Comments
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Larr Flint
Nice riding inflation and taxpayers that salary didn't go up.
David Brent
Amazing what your profits can be when you pay your army of haken and ukeoi worker peanuts day in, day out. Trebles all round!
bo
So happy for all these big corps that made billions ,while the average Joe gets shafted
Peter Neil
In the US, Toyota workers make more on average than GM workers.
David Brent
Not being outsourced three times over probably has something to do with it! It's insane the amount and levels of outsourcing in Japan; a true cancer on society here.
koiwaicoffee
Toyota's ¥1.3 trillion quarter profits are good news for shareholders and executives, only.
Met once a Japanese that worked for a Toyota factory, his work conditions neared paid slavery.
Eastman
and yes guess what,average Toyota worker will se no difference at payslip at all...
Sultan of Swing
LOL , not bad for a company that is not relevant. LOL
Sultan of Swing
Yet Toyota had record profits. So much for EVS.
Asiaman7
Oh, my! This article is missing the below key information:
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Toyota also benefited from a weaker yen. The Japanese currency fell about 8 yen against the U.S. dollar during the year through June, according to Bank of Japan data, amid the widening interest rate differential between Japan and the United States.
Every 1-yen fall against the dollar boosts the automaker's operating profits by 45 billion yen, Toyota says.
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So nearly 400 billion yen of the 600 billon yen increase in profits was attributed to yen depreciation.
Rodney
Great to see them in most of worlds was.
dan
While they pay many of their factory workers pittance!!
Disgusting company.
JeffLee
They earn roughly the same hourly rate, but GM workers have far bigger benefits like healthcare, pensions, etc.
Samit Basu
Things are not looking good for Toyota in the long term.
The US EV market share in 1st half of 2023.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/07/ev-sales-hyundai-overtakes-gm-but-teslas-us-dominance-continues.html
Hyundai is no. 2 even though it's the only EV vendor out of top 5 to NOT benefit from the $7,500 federal EV tax credit due to the wording of the Inflation Reduction Act that restricts EVs assembled in the US, Canada, and Mexico to benefit even though the KORUS FTA is supposed to treat Korean automakers the same as US domestic automakers in terms of benefits. Hyundai manages to hold onto its US EV market share through sheer competitiveness of its product without the $7,500 federal tax credit, where Hyundai EVs are frequently rated to be superior to Teslas by auto journalists.
So when Hyundai's US EV plants are set to go online in 2025, Hyundai's US EV market share is expected to explode.
Now, where are the Japanese in the US EV market share ranking? Well they don't rank at all, making US press to ask if the Japanese have given up on the US market as they will have no future 10 years from today. And that indeed appears to be the case with Mazda.
https://thedriven.io/2023/08/02/mazda-in-reverse-gear-as-it-discontinues-ev-in-favour-of-hybrids/
Abe234
Excellent news. Hopefully they'll be able to boost peoples bonuses. A weak yen isn't all bad. I'm getting a lot more for my dollars now. Importers might have to pay more but I think it is good news for Japanese exporters. The bonuses will either be saved or spent in the domestic market.
Mark
So many people making assumptions in the comments.
WA4TKG
Average Japanese people will get nothing from this, just the big shots
bogva
Car prices have risen 40% and up. Workers salaries probably no more than 5%. Even considering the troubles and higher prices of the parts the margin they make is huge. Add the weak yen as mentioned above and I'm not sure we have to be happy with this news.
garypen
Nonsense. UAW members make more, on average, than non-union workers in right-to-work-for-less states, which is where Toyota and other foreign automakers have their US factories.
garypen
They are currently (2023 1H) the largest-selling car brand in the world.
What makes them "not relevant" in your...ummm...mind?
Mark
I believe he's making a reference to the anti-Japan commenters that frequently claim that Japan is irrelevant.
Agent_Neo
The outlook is not bad for Toyota, combined with the weaker yen.
Koreans who want Toyota to perish, put up data only for EVs, but it is still gasoline cars and hybrids that are selling, not EVs after all.
EV infrastructure development is also delayed, and it is only positioned as a second car.
Toyota is developing all kinds of engines such as EV, hydrogen, gasoline, and hybrid. If Toyota launches cremation vehicles like Korean cars before the EV market matures, it will lose its brand value.
And we can't issue tens of thousands of recalls like Korean cars.
Development of all-solid-state batteries is currently underway, and it will take some time before they are installed in Toyota's EVs and released, but it is not a story in the distant future.
It is natural in Japan to provide safe and secure products, which is different from Korean cars that are released even if they have defects.