On Wednesday, Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) forecast a 10% increase in operating profit and a five-fold increase in pure electric vehicle (EV) sales due to a semiconductor bottleneck alleviating worldwide supply chain disruption.
The development plan, released by new CEO Koji Sato last month, marks a more aggressive drive toward electrification by the Japanese corporation, which has historically taken a go-slow approach to all-electric cars to give consumers more options.
The world’s largest automaker anticipated 202,000 battery EV sales, including Lexus, this financial year through March 2024, growing more than fivefold from 38,000 last year.
Toyota said operating profit would climb to 3.0 trillion yen ($22.2 billion) this financial year, in line with experts’ average projection of 3.02.
Operating profit for the fiscal fourth quarter through March rose more than a third to 626.9 billion yen, above the average 553.46 billion yen profit predicted by ten analysts, according to Refinitiv data.
In China, the world’s largest car market, agile Chinese manufacturers like BYD Co Ltd (002594. SZ) have aggressively pursued battery EVs, undermining multinational names like Toyota.
Sato said China’s demand for battery-powered vehicles was mostly fresh and distinct from hybrid vehicle demand.
“We would like to work on both sides,” he stated.
A weak yen boosted international sales, while greater output volumes offset rising materials prices to meet the profit objective. Due to the weak yen, revenue for the March business year reached 37.15 trillion yen.
Toyota shares, which were practically flat before the presentation of the results, jumped 2.5% before settling at 0.8%.
Toyota’s battery EV sales would rise to about 2% of total sales from 0.4% in the previous fiscal year, still well behind Tesla (TSLA.O).
“We expect an increase in (overall) sales volume in all regions and production volume of 10.1 million (vehicles), due to such factors as… improvement in semiconductor supply,” Toyota stated. That’s an 11% production gain over last year.
Toyota plans to produce ten new battery-powered vehicles and sells 1.5 million EVs a year by 2026 to compete with emerging Chinese automakers and Tesla.
Sato said Toyota would accelerate its efforts to deliver “appropriate” solutions for diverse markets, with new models ranging from mini commercial to luxury cars focused on the US and China.
He added the previously announced BEV Factory would include three platforms for vehicle chassis, electronics, and software.
The business closed its Japanese ZEV facility, which designed zero-emission vehicles.
Despite Daihatsu’s safety test issues and green investor pressure, Toyota is the world’s top-selling carmaker.
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