Photo: Toyota
Toyota's previous two years ended on a high, and as every sports fan knows - because he's reminded by the commentators all the time - being ahead can lead to complacency.
Apparently, that's not necessarily what led to Toyota's less-than-ideal financial year, but rather the foreign exchange rates and ever-increasing costs. The Japanese giant announced an operating profit fall of 20 percent to $3.94 billion for the fourth fiscal quarter, prompting President Toyoda to identify "a sense of crisis" inside the company.
Not all Toyota numbers have arrows pointing downward next to them, though. For instance, revenue increased 6.8 percent while global sales were also up by 3.1 percent, but they weren't enough to keep Toyota from registering a drop in both net income and operating profit over the last fiscal year.
“I feel a strong sense of crisis about whether or not we are actually executing car-making from the perspective of the customer in all Toyota workplaces, from development, production, procurement and sales, all the way to administrative divisions,” said Toyoda, quoted by Automotive News.
Sadly for the world's biggest carmaker, things don't look too positively for the future either, with forecasted figures showing a massive decline in operating profit and net income for the current year as well.
Toyota invested heavily in hybrid and liquid hydrogen fuel cell technologies, betting on the success of the two as opposed to battery-powered electric vehicles. However, the market shows the Japanese manufacturer may have placed its bet on the wrong color (at least partially, and is now facing further R&D investments to try and catch up with the rest.
The company is still heavily reliant on the North American market where it retails most of its vehicles (2.8 million over the first three months of 2017), but numbers show the sales to be stagnant compared to the previous year.
“In the case of sports, booking two consecutive years of losses would mean you are failing,” said Toyoda. “I hate to be beaten.” That means either Toyota will step up or Toyoda will step down.
Not all Toyota numbers have arrows pointing downward next to them, though. For instance, revenue increased 6.8 percent while global sales were also up by 3.1 percent, but they weren't enough to keep Toyota from registering a drop in both net income and operating profit over the last fiscal year.
“I feel a strong sense of crisis about whether or not we are actually executing car-making from the perspective of the customer in all Toyota workplaces, from development, production, procurement and sales, all the way to administrative divisions,” said Toyoda, quoted by Automotive News.
Sadly for the world's biggest carmaker, things don't look too positively for the future either, with forecasted figures showing a massive decline in operating profit and net income for the current year as well.
Toyota invested heavily in hybrid and liquid hydrogen fuel cell technologies, betting on the success of the two as opposed to battery-powered electric vehicles. However, the market shows the Japanese manufacturer may have placed its bet on the wrong color (at least partially, and is now facing further R&D investments to try and catch up with the rest.
The company is still heavily reliant on the North American market where it retails most of its vehicles (2.8 million over the first three months of 2017), but numbers show the sales to be stagnant compared to the previous year.
“In the case of sports, booking two consecutive years of losses would mean you are failing,” said Toyoda. “I hate to be beaten.” That means either Toyota will step up or Toyoda will step down.
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