In Nagoya, Japan, at Toyota’s austere headquarters, the mockery left the company’s managers unmoved. They even had to smile at the analyzes of the specialists who promised them imminent death due to their delay in switching on the electric and their determination to plow the furrow of the hybrid.
An operating margin of 11.9%
In response, at the beginning of this week, they modestly and quietly delivered their figures for the past financial year which ended at the end of March in Japan. And they are historic. Earnings ? It has doubled since the previous accounting year to $32 billion. Not very far from double the 18.6 billion Stellantis so vaunted in Europe.
Especially since the Japanese achieves this feat with three brands (Toyota, Daihatsu and Lexus), plus a few participations here and there, while the Franco-American has a galaxy of 14 brands. In addition, this profit is accompanied by record sales, up 7% and a margin of 11.9%.
Enough to annoy analysts who have difficulty admitting their errors of judgment. So they invoked the yen which, for several months, has been weak enough to offer the manufacturer’s exports a great exchange rate. Except that the effect of the yen only represents 12% of Toyota’s profit. That’s a lot, but not enough to justify its incredible success and its more than 10 million cars sold.
In addition, the brand’s bosses pointed out that their sales could have been even better without the Daihatsu scandal. The subsidiary has in fact been embroiled in a scandal similar to Dieselgate since last year, since cheating in approval tests was discovered and production of its models was suspended at the end of 2023.
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Neither Daihatsu’s pit stop, nor the ignition delay on the electric models, nor the somewhat botched debut of one of its rare wattage models, the BZ4X, therefore had any effect on the brazen good health of Toyota. But in this case, what is its success linked to? The Japanese martingale has a name: the hybrid. He democratized the genre with the first Prius born 27 years ago and since then, Toyota and Lexus have plowed their way across all ranges, before patiently developing the PHEV.
And the market largely proved them right, especially last year. Because if electric is lagging behind, hybrid in all its forms is celebrating. Europe is crazy about it, especially Germany which has removed aid for EVs. As for the United States, where the price of a gallon of gasoline increased, they also ended up adopting this technology. Result: the Japanese saw its sales of hybrids increase by 35% worldwide.
Except that, even if Toyota is the undisputed hybrid specialist, this system only represents 37% of its sales worldwide. So there is another reason that could attract the attention of customers. Passion ? Not really. Apart from a few models like the Yaris GRMN whose sole purpose is precisely to erase the image of cars that are dull to drive, we don’t treat ourselves to a Toyota for pleasure, but out of pragmatism and confidence in a machine with a reputation for reliability.
The Japanese may have missed the move to 100% electric, but he understood what the car of tomorrow would probably be: a means of transport based on reason, not passion.
