Toyota
Toyota Motor Corporation (Japanese: トヨタ自動車株式会社, Hepburn: Toyota Jidōsha kabushikigaisha, IPA: [toꜜjota], English: /tɔɪˈjoʊtə/, commonly known as simply Toyota) is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the largest automobile manufacturer in the world, producing about 10 million vehicles per year.
This article is about the Japanese car manufacturer. For other uses, see Toyota (disambiguation).
Native name
トヨタ自動車株式会社
Toyota Jidōsha kabushikigaisha
August 28, 1937
Worldwide
- Akio Toyoda (Chairman)
- Shigeru Hayakawa (Vice Chairman)
- Koji Sato (President & CEO)
- Simon Humphries (Chief Designer)
8,694,032 (FY23)
¥2,197,748 million (FY21)
¥2,282,378 million (FY21)
¥62,267,140 million- US$562 billion (FY21)
¥24,288,329 million (FY21)
Toyota Group through cross ownership:
- Toyota Industries cross-owns 8.28%
- Subaru Corporation cross-owns 3.17%
- Denso cross-owns 3.12%
- Mazda cross-owns 0.25%
- Suzuki cross-owns 0.2%
375,235 (FY23)
- Daihatsu
- Denso (25%)
- FAW Toyota (China, 50%)
- GAC Toyota (China, 50%)
- Hino Motors
- Subaru Corporation (20%)
- Toyota Argentina
- Toyota Australia
- Toyota Auto Body
- Toyota Financial Services
- Toyota Kirloskar Motors
- Toyota Motor Europe
- Toyota Motor East Japan
- Toyota Motor Kyushu
- Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indonesia (95%)
- Toyota Motor North America
- Toyota Motor Pakistan
- Toyota Motor Philippines
- Toyota Motor Thailand (86%)
- Toyota South Africa Motors
- Woven Planet Holdings
The company was originally founded as a spinoff of Toyota Industries, a machine maker started by Sakichi Toyoda, Kiichiro's father. Both companies are now part of the Toyota Group, one of the largest conglomerates in the world. While still a department of Toyota Industries, the company developed its first product, the Type A engine, in 1934 and its first passenger car in 1936, the Toyota AA.
After World War II, Toyota benefited from Japan's alliance with the United States to learn from American automakers and other companies, which gave rise to The Toyota Way (a management philosophy) and the Toyota Production System (a lean manufacturing practice) that transformed the small company into a leader in the industry and was the subject of many academic studies.
In the 1960s, Toyota took advantage of the rapidly growing Japanese economy to sell cars to a growing middle-class, leading to the development of the Toyota Corolla, which became the world's all-time best-selling automobile. The booming economy also funded an international expansion that allowed Toyota to grow into one of the largest automakers in the world, the largest company in Japan and the ninth-largest company in the world by revenue, as of December 2020. Toyota was the world's first automobile manufacturer to produce more than 10 million vehicles per year, a record set in 2012, when it also reported the production of its 200 millionth vehicle. By September 2023, total production reached 300 million vehicles.[4]
Toyota was praised for being a leader in the development and sales of more fuel-efficient hybrid electric vehicles, starting with the introduction of the original Toyota Prius in 1997. The company now sells more than 40 hybrid vehicle models around the world. More recently, the company has also been criticized for being slow to adopt all-electric vehicles, instead focusing on the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, like the Toyota Mirai, a technology that is much costlier and has fallen far behind electric batteries in terms of adoption.
As of 2024, the Toyota Motor Corporation produces vehicles under four brands: Daihatsu, Hino, Lexus and the namesake Toyota. The company also holds a 20% stake in Subaru Corporation, a 5.1% stake in Mazda, a 4.9% stake in Suzuki, a 4.6% stake in Isuzu, a 3.8% stake in Yamaha Motor Corporation, and a 2.8% stake in Panasonic, as well as stakes in vehicle manufacturing joint-ventures in China (FAW Toyota and GAC Toyota), the Czech Republic (TPCA), India (Toyota Kirloskar) and the United States (MTMUS).
Toyota is listed on the London Stock Exchange, Nagoya Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange and on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, where its stock is a component of the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX Core30 indices.
Non-automotive activities
Aerospace
Toyota is a minority shareholder in Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation, having invested US$67.2 million in the new venture which will produce the Mitsubishi Regional Jet, slated for first deliveries in 2017.[196] Toyota has also studied participation in the general aviation market and contracted with Scaled Composites to produce a proof of concept aircraft, the TAA-1, in 2002.[197][198]
Pleasure boats
In 1997, building on a previous partnership with Yamaha Marine, Toyota created "Toyota Marine",[199] building private ownership motorboats, currently sold only in Japan. A small network in Japan sells the luxury craft at 54 locations, called the "Toyota Ponam" series, and in 2017, a boat was labeled under the Lexus brand name starting May 26, 2017.[200]
Controversies
Corrosion lawsuit
In November 2016, Toyota agreed to pay $3.4 billion to settle allegations that roughly one-and-a-half million of its Tacoma, Tundra, and Sequoia pickup trucks and SUVs had been outfitted with frames prone to corrosion and perforation. According to court papers, the corrosion could reach levels high enough to compromise the vehicle's structural integrity.[215]
