Featured Toyota President Says 'Silent Majority' Not Convinced on EV-Only Future

Here's a different view of that same parking lot in April 2021.

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While everyone has a right to an opinion, they also have a right to say nothing. It seems like a couple of people spend an awful lot of their time doing nothing except bashing Toyota, often with unsubstantiated claims and statements that serve no visible purpose. Well, some of them are blatantly trying to boost Tesla stock, but others just seem to hate Toyota for some reason.

 

agreed, they have a right to both and all

 

The $7500 rebate is no different than the large rebates Toyota had on the Prius Prime around here to make up for there not being the huge state incentives. Several people on this site traveled to the region to take advantage of it.

Cars don't miraculously warp from the factory to the new owner. There is a delay. Cars with buyer, but not delivered by the end of the quarter aren't counted as sold. Toyota and others generally don't report the production numbers to the general public, just the sales numbers. they made more cars than they sold in a given period. Then Tesla doesn't have the benefit of dealers for this accounting. The cars Toyota delivers to a dealer, count as sold for their books.

Sales in the US were growing before this. California announcing a ban on new ICE sales why I'm seeing more BEVs in Pennsylvania. In the last two years, we've gotten a lot more choices than Tesla to increase sales. The fuel price increase also helped EV sales.

 

Unless Toyota's philosophy and production methods have changed dramatically since I worked there that is not how Toyota makes cars.

The Toyota Production system is a pull system.

What this means is that Toyota doesn't make a car until they have an order for it.

At TMMK Toyotas largest manufacturing Plant what this meant for us was- for every vehicle we produced there was an order by a Dealer or an Individual Customer. Color scheme, option package, engine size had all been requisitioned by a Toyota Dealer and input into the Production System to be made. Each vehicle had its own requisition and Manifest as it went through the line. Toyota never randomly just made cars. That is one of the reasons Toyota is so unique - every car it makes is already sold and requested - though this may be by a Dealer or Individual Customer.

Typically, we could not keep up with the orders even though we would produce over 500,000 cars a year working 2 shifts 5 days a week and many Saturdays at our three plants.

Toyota Production System | Vision & Philosophy | Company | Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website

1. When a vehicle order is received, production instructions must be issued to the beginning of the vehicle production line as soon as possible.

 

Tesla has about 17 days of inventory.
The industry average, as of November 2022, is 53.

 

Pretty sure Tesla is too.

Still going to have a delivery delay where a produced car doesn't get counted as sold.

Here's Toyota's production and sold figures; Sales, Production, and Export Results | Profile | Company | Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website
For November, they had about 37k unsold cars on the ledgers.

 

i didn't think toyota took individual orders?

as for dealers, toyota wouldn't be very happy if they employed the pull system.

the result in the prime years until later in covid was heavy dealer discounting and toyota rebates.

for generations, toyota had a no layoff policy in japan

 

• Tesla sends a lot of undelivered inventory to the Europe, Australia, and other Asian countries like Thailand.
• Many are on ships, 4,000 on a ship, and processing in ports..

Bob Wilson

 

I believe dealers are counted as ‘customers’ in this context when discussing Toyota.
As such, when a dealer places an order, that counts as a sale as soon as the Dealer gets the car.

While typical dealers would prefer to sell you a car in their inventory, some will place a special order with your specifications directly with the manufacturer.

 

but not toyota, i don't think. iirc, they allocate models to dealers

 

As I understand it, dealers are given an allocation. Following this the dealers place their order with specifics.
If it is just for inventory to have on-hand, they will order the most popular packages. If they have a customer that wants a specific build, they will order that package as one of their allotment.

I believe the term ‘allotment’ is used industry wide.

@John321 may have personal experience with how this works.

 

So a couple years ago there were a bunch of Tesla's in an off-site parking lot. That means Tesla is in trouble? Isn't that saying something negative about tesla? Isn't that 'bashing'? Does that mean you're trying to take down Tesla stock? Isn't that the gist of this & your prior post #139? Saying something unflattering (albeit true) makes one a hater? With ulterior motives? That's another stretch.
Using a picture to prove tesla's trouble? .... if we were playing cards with car inventory pictures - one might be tempted to say "I'll see your irrelevant picture and raise you 3"







I've had good experiences & bad experiences with both Tesla & Toyota. That fact neither makes poeple fans nor detractors. Toyota is financially strong enough to have car people look at &/or consider their business statements and advertising campaigns.
.

 

Shocking?

• Inventory waiting for a ship or later at an import facility? - Yes
• China factory down a week for Chinese New Years? - Yes
• Is my TSLA stock for sale? - No

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad (Meatloaf)

Baby, we can talk all night
But that ain't gettin us nowhere
I told you everything I possibly can
There's nothing left inside of here
​

Bob Wilson

 

It sure would be nice if you started to post using complete sentences and proper grammar. This is ambiguous gibberish that means nothing. Oddly the only valid sentence is "Is my TSLA stock for sale?" but that has no relevance to the subject under discussion.

 

My TSLA stock is still not for sale. Turning up the squelch.

Bob Wilson

 

Here is a big picture view of how Toyota operates for Automobile Production. It is a huge Company and Automobile Manufacturing is just one sector of the Company.

I worked for the Production arm of the Automotive Sector of the Company. Another arm of the Automotive Sector of the Company is the Automobile Sales arm. They are distinct separate Divisions. The Automotive Sales Division was considered our ultimate Customer. We built no vehicle that wasn't requested by the Sales Division. Our Production schedules were determined by the Sales Division orders.

Automotive Manufactuing is a complicated enterprise. Toyota factories are set up with systems that have adjustable Takt Time. In my Department there were times the lines were adjusted to make a vehicle every 55 seconds and there were times the lines would be slowed down to produce a car every 145 seconds and every speed between these two extremes. The Takt Time is adjusted to meet the required volume of cars that the Sales Division requested that month.

We also had multiple Plants, so in one Plant the Line that Produced the RAV4 may be running at 55 seconds and working two Saturdays a month - the Plant and line that produced the Camry may be running at 125 seconds and working no overtime or Saturdays to meet their goals.

Toyota is a non unionized company and there is no labor vs management nonsense or monkey shines as both parties work together to produce the best quality affordable car for the customer. It is not a problem to change line speeds in this type of environment. With no unions there are no strikes labor disruptions or other nonsense. Toyota in return doesn't have layoffs or work stoppages and has a wonderful work environment for its employees.

We were constantly trained that the whole reason for our jobs was to produce a high quality affordable pleasing product for our customer and even though Toyota Sales Division placed the orders we knew it was our fellow members in society who bought the vehicles we made. Toyota would host events periodically where we would get to meet the customers who were buying our cars. Toyota also conducted daily tours of the plant where individuals could see the Plant operate and who the individuals were manufacturing the cars.

The Sales Division has a tremendously difficult job predicting future sales. Imagine trying to predict Sales in this current environment- what will the price of gas and its availability be- where is the US economy headed-how bad will the coming recession be- what will be the interest rate on borrowed money - will consumers have disposable income for cars - will the Fed raise/lower the interest rate- when the Presidential election nears will they begin giving out another money stimulus package to get votes- will the price of certain raw materials explode making car prices soar- will there be a shortage of certain raw materials- will there be another bout with the covid epidemic etc.? That is why we sometimes see shortages and gluts of manufactured cars no matter how disciplined the auto manufacturer is.

Sorry for the long post wanted to answer the questions posed and questions that might arise from this post.

 

I had organized two visits to the Georgetown KY plant and it was well worth the time and effort.

Bob Wilson

 

maybe, i don't know. john worked in n.carolina, japan may be a different story

 

I'm late to the thread, but here goes.

Anyone else get the vibe that his comments about a "silent majority" are really just a polite way of suggesting that his customer base can't afford EVs?

Any time I hear that term I get skeptical, so if the term was deliberately used I'm quite tempted to think he's politely covering something else- just not sure what.