Mr. Akio Toyoda is very different from the founder of Toyota, he is a third-generation entrepreneur and has a good Western education, is proficient in English and is fully familiar with the culture, rules and order of capital and enterprises in Western countries. He was educated in Boston, the cultural center of Western capitalism, primarily at Babson College in south Boston. It's a very low-key but classic business school, and in 2016 Babson College's Graduate School of Business (MBA) program was ranked No. 1 in the entrepreneurship category by U.S. News & World Report, and Babson College has held this honor for nearly three decades. In 2014, Money magazine ranked Babson College as the best university in the U.S. from an investment perspective.
On January 26, 2023, Mr. Akio Toyoda unexpectedly announced that he would step down as president and CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation on April 1, but would succeed him as chairman of the company. The position of president was given to Tsuneji Sato, who previously headed Toyota's luxury car brand Lexus, where he promoted Lexus to become a household name in the United States.
Interestingly, after stepping down as president, Mr. Akio Toyoda seems to have started a storm, standing at the head of the tide, boldly speaking, expressing opinions, constantly refreshing the heat, and quickly becoming a rare iconic figure in the Japanese business world.
Soon after the beginning of 2024, a big debate around the future discourse of electric vehicles is unfolding between the two bigwigs in the car circle, and the protagonists of the "scolding war" are Musk, an American social expert, and the other is Akio Toyoda, the head of the original Toyota company.
At the beginning, Akio Toyoda made negative remarks about electric vehicles, saying, "No matter how much progress is made in electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, fuel cell electric vehicles, and hydrogen fuel vehicles will still account for 70% of market sales." "Obviously, according to this algorithm, electric vehicles will only account for 30% of the overall sales of the car market in the future.
Soon, Akio Toyoda's remarks attracted Musk's attention, and Musk replied with the word "sigh" on his social ** platform, and his sigh and speechlessness were overflowing. It is reported that Musk is very annoyed that Tesla's sales in Japan at this stage are not as large as expected. Musk blamed this on a "lack of awareness" on the Japanese, which he said he heard from Japanese friends. In fact, Musk had earlier warned that if traditional car companies do not quickly transition to electric vehicles, it will be like the film giant Kodak abandoned in the digital age.
It is obvious that since Akio Toyoda stepped down as the president of Toyota Motor, it seems that he has completely let himself go, and he has a determination and state to "fight to the end" with electric vehicles.
Mr. Akio Toyoda pointed out that the charging facilities for electric vehicles are insufficient, and it is impossible to actually achieve "sufficient". Akio Toyoda believes that electric vehicles are very low-level products that are not environmentally friendly, not counting new energy, and the batteries of electric cars can rarely be driven for more than 10 years, and the disposal of waste batteries is likely to cause environmental pollution. It is worth noting that Akio Toyoda once again brought up an original intention that was about to be forgotten in the global automobile manufacturing industry: the real mission of the automotive industry, including Toyota, is to reduce carbon emissions, but the reality is distorted to achieve this goal only with electric vehicles, completely ignoring the existence of other mature technologies.
It is not for nothing that Mr. Akio Toyoda continues to "slam" electric vehicles, Tesla in the Japanese market, it can be said that it is a total defeat, and the import of Tesla in the Japanese market not only did not grow, but also fell by 68%。In addition, Tesla's reported performance is not ideal, the situation of electric vehicles is relatively bad, Tesla's gross profit margin in 2023 is 18%, which is the lowest since 2019, and it is down 7% year-on-year35%。Musk's self-explanation is that Tesla is in between two growth waves, and sales will slow significantly in 2024.
Although the "whistle" of electric vehicles in the global market is still earth-shattering, as I said at the end of 2023, the so-called electric vehicles in new energy vehicles are already at the end of the crossbow, and the market will go down in the future, or even sharply. The specific reasons, I think there are three main points, first, the technology is difficult to break through, although the nature of science and technology entertainment "good news" continues, but the technology, including "solid-state batteries", is still far from practical mass production. Second, the support and subsidy policies of electric vehicles in various countries around the world are being withdrawn one after another, and the space for policy arbitrage does not exist, and car prices will rise or production will suffer serious losses. Third, the industrial technology is simple, but in fact, it is mainly the "three electrics" system, motors, stacks, and electronic control, which are easy to oversupply and depress. Therefore, in the current automobile manufacturing industry, although most people are still the "silent majority", the industrial bubble is concentrated in the field of new energy vehicles, and the risk is concentrated in the field of new energy vehicles, and the situation is rapidly reversing.
In contrast to reality, Musk is still dominant in the global field, not only in the automobile manufacturing industry, but also in other aspects, even in the war in Ukraine. Looking at the whole world, not only can global entrepreneurs not be compared with Musk, but there is also no one who can compare with Musk in the global capital and investment circles with strong assets.
The only exception may be Akio Toyoda.
Now Akio Toyoda's anti-trend views, many of them are difficult to digest and fiercely debated, and some will even develop into a phenomenon of gambling. I believe that these debates are a kind of spotlight phenomenon in the field, and this kind of focus, when it happens, usually means that disruptive change is likely to happen. We can see that Mr. Akio Toyoda is very different from traditional Japanese entrepreneurs, not only the scale of assets he operates and controls is very large, but also has the symbol of Toyota, he is at the pinnacle of the automobile manufacturing industry, and has a strong modern corporate culture background. I believe that in the future, he is an iconic figure who can represent Asian companies to compete with Musk.
Interestingly, if there is a certain aspect of Japan that can represent Asia in the past, then this view will be very blunt and immature, because in fact there is no such iconic figure, and some may just be doing big business, but that is nothing, big business is just luck, just at the right time, not the entrepreneur himself is the most popular figure in the world. In Asia, there are people who do big business, but when it comes to entrepreneurial ideas, it may be at most the business experience that can't be on the table, thick black learning, plus "be kind" and praise each other, this situation makes people always think that Asian entrepreneurs, from the pig business to the manufacture of industrial products, probably Asian entrepreneurs are all the way, all belong to the stuffy work, no voice, no status, no imagination people, and most importantly, they lack the idea of influencing the future of mankind.
Now, Akio Toyoda has given hope to Asians that he has the potential to become "Asia's version of Musk", making his voice heard on behalf of Asian manufacturing and expressing the views of Asian manufacturing – to let the world see and enjoy the way of life that Asia has created. So, Mr. Akio Toyoda, keep going, go go go!
Final analysis conclusion: In the tide of electric vehicles that the world has begun to decline, Japanese entrepreneur Mr. Akio Toyoda has opened a new ** field, and his revelation of the "truth" that electric vehicles are not environmentally friendly and do not represent future industrial trends has formed a confrontation with Musk's previous touting of electric vehicles beyond the industry. Akio Toyoda made his voice and expressed the views of Asian manufacturing on behalf of the Asian manufacturing industry, and also let the world see the lifestyle created by Asia. (*Anbang Consulting).