Toyota expects to lose money in North America even as it prepares to sell more cars in the US than a restructured General Motors, a senior executive said in Detroit.
Yoshimi Inaba, the new chairman and CEO of Toyota Motor Sales USA, said he hopes the company’s North American operations can return to profitability during its next fiscal year, which begins next April.
“It’s a challenge. I guess I’ve just set myself a very big goal,” he said during a meeting with reporters on Thursday. “Our strength is our ability to meet local needs. I don’t see how Toyota can be profitable again without being profitable in North America.”
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
Inaba said it is quite likely that Toyota could emerge as the top car seller in the US if the predictions that General Motors is destined to lose market share after shedding brands and downsizing operations prove accurate.
“Toyota tried very hard to become No. 1” globally as it doubled sales world wide in the last eight years, but is not actively working to surpass GM in the US, he said.
“It’s not that we want to be No. 1 [in the US], it’s because of how things worked out,” he said.
Inaba cautioned that Toyota’s rapid growth also came at a price, leaving it vulnerable when sales dropped simultaneously in the US, Japan and Western Europe. Inaba expressed confidence that the US market will recover from its current slump, but cautioned that it will take time.
“There is a little pulse in the market. The market can’t get any worse,” he said.
The fundamentals of the US economy — and its lack of sufficient public transportation — mean that auto sales will eventually return to their previous highs, he said.
“We can still be very excited about this market,” he said.
However, Inaba cautioned that Toyota is facing stiff competition from Hyundai, Ford and other automakers.
“We see what many, many of our competitors are doing,” Inaba said. “They are doing a good job of catching up.”
Toyota has not yet determined the fate of a California plant it ran as a joint venture with General Motors, he said.
GM announced plans to withdraw from New United Motor Manufacturing Inc as it restructured under bankruptcy protection.
“We are looking at the viability of NUMMI. There is a likelihood that we would not buy the rest of NUMMI [from GM],” Inaba said.
But it is not clear if Toyota will end up closing the plant, which employs more than 5,400 people and is Toyota’s only unionized plant in the US. The United Auto Workers union is negotiating to save the plant, but has not said whether it will offer Toyota the same concessions granted to the Detroit Big Three.
“There are a number of difficult and complex issues that we need to address before making any final decisions,” Inaba said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS