Because of the rapid expansion of domestic new energy, Toyota saw a "volume and price decline" in the Chinese market last year.
Classic models such as Corolla and Camry, which have always had strong prices, have lowered their arrogant heads and reduced their prices for promotions.
Even Lexus, which has always had to "increase the price", has also turned on the discount mode.
According to the data, although Toyota's revenue increased by 1.1 billion yen (50 million yuan), its sales expenses increased significantly, with a total loss of 36.1 billion yen (1.8 billion yuan).
But who would have thought that, according to Japan's Kyodo News Agency, Toyota Motor Corporation's recently released consolidated financial report for the 2023 fiscal year (April 2023 to March 2024) shows:
Operating profit increased by 96.4% over the previous fiscal year to a record 5.3529 trillion yen (about 249.2 billion yuan), becoming the first Japanese company to break the 5 trillion yen revenue mark.
Its profits are also more than the profits of China's six major car companies combined! (BYD 30 billion, SAIC 14.1 billion, Ideal 11.7 billion, Great Wall 7 billion, Geely 5.3 billion, GAC 4.4 billion, a total of 72.5 billion).
The question is, how did Toyota, which suffered a big loss in the Chinese market, earn more?
According to Toyota's financial report, the increase in profit in the previous year was mainly due to "operating income by location".
This alone increased profits by 1.58 trillion yen, accounting for 60.77% of the total 2.6 trillion yen.
In other words, Japan is Toyota's main consumer market.
It's on sale in China, but it's not on sale in Japan!
This was followed by the expansion of the North American and European markets, which increased operating profit by 450.3 billion yen and 351.3 billion yen, respectively.
The Toyota Group exported 2.08 million units in fiscal 2023, the second-highest since 2012.
In the overseas market, North America has become Toyota's largest source of money.
On the one hand, the United States has done everything it can to boycott China's new energy vehicles.
The president took the lead in coming out and boycotting, saying something: Chinese electric cars are smartphones on wheels that spy on Americans.
In addition, the U.S. government has also increased tariffs on Chinese car exports and strictly scrutinized chip exports to Chinese automakers.
Under such circumstances, many consumers in the United States naturally turned to Toyota.
On the other hand, Toyota has also replicated the "mark-up marketing" technique in China in Canada.
Since there are not many local brand car companies in the Canadian market, Toyota is crazy about marketing, and it will increase the price every time it is remodeled, and it also superimposes the method of hunger marketing, so that users experience a long time waiting for the car, and psychologically create a "noble" attribute.
In terms of the overall environment, the high inflation rate in the United States in North America has led to the overall increase in the price of automobiles, coupled with the crazy depreciation of the yen and the increase in the exchange rate, which has a positive effect on the growth of revenue.
In a word, although the Chinese market makes less money, in the European and American markets, Toyota eats until the belly is round.
While Toyota is earning more, does that mean Toyota's future will be better?
I don't think so.
You must know that when Nokia was about to be eliminated, there was also a sharp rise in operating profits.
Today, when we look at the rise of China's new energy, we can often see Toyota's hard work in the United States in the 80s of the last century.
In 1983, Eiji Toyoda, then Toyota's CEO, threw a question to the company's executives and experts:
Can we create a luxury car that will challenge the top market?
After that, Toyota began to invest heavily in the research and development of new engines and chassis, and after more than ten years, Toyota took the low-cost and high-configuration Lexus, and gradually occupied the American market.
And in 1991 it became the best-selling imported luxury brand in the United States, and in 2000 it became the best-selling luxury car in North America, and until now, Toyota has not left this throne.
Now, domestic new energy has also got this script, and the technology of Chinese automakers has gradually exploded in recent years.
For example, BYD and CATL.
If you compare them with Tesla, the total revenue of these two companies in 2023 will be 1.5 times that of Tesla, and the R&D expenses will be 2 times that of Tesla.
BYD's revenue is 90% of Tesla's, while its R&D expenses are 140% of Tesla's.
Not long ago, Toyota also announced that the domestic Toyota car will use BYD's DM-i technology (comprehensive range of 2000 kilometers), who would have thought that Toyota would buy Chinese technology!
Back then, Toyota's hybrid entered China, which caused a lot of admiration, and experts also said that Toyota had applied for almost all the patents that could be applied for in the hybrid, and no company could bypass Toyota's patents.
But now it seems that China has bypassed the technical barriers and come up with something better.
Wu Xiangjun also noticed that the current Japanese market is full of BYD car advertisements.
In order to expand the Japanese market, BYD invited Japanese national star Masami Nagasawa to have an in-depth experience.
After Masami Nagasawa test drove for a while, she praised BYD:
"Shocking driving comfort! Amazing experience! ”
It takes time to break through.
Last year, Toyota had to suspend production of a number of models exported to several Southeast Asian countries due to a scandal involving fraudulent safety tests.
Since domestic new energy can pull Toyota off the horse in China, it will also have the upper hand in the competition in the international market in the future.
Of course, Toyota is a company that must not be underestimated.
At this year's 2024 Beijing Auto Show, Toyota took out the pure electric models "bZ3C" and "Bozhi 3X", which shows that although Toyota says that electric vehicles are not the future, the body is still very honest to follow up, and the new president Tsuneji Sato has also made strategic adjustments to Toyota.
What's more, Toyota's family foundation is also very thick, and Toyota's high-profit models have always been relatively popular in the market.
And the way of China's new energy loss-making promotion is likely to roll up and roll itself to death.
How to establish a better image of going overseas, how to challenge Toyota from the technical point of view, the future of China's new energy, but also to be stable and far-reaching, not arrogant or impetuous.