Quote:
Originally Posted by chad86tsi
I guess I just don't understand you then, they are the world leader in automotive market share. 4 times BMW, and tesla didn't even make the list. quality/style/sexyness (all subjective) aside, Toyota builds what people buy better than anyone:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/...ng-automakers/
This list will be different 10 years from now, no doubt about that, but thinking they have already killed themselves seems a bit premature. |
I think you're misunderstanding my point. I'm looking forward to where the market is going and Toyota isn't in the right place to benefit from that market direction for reasons I shared earlier.
I know I keep using smartphones as an analogy, but it fits well here. In 2005 Nokia was the world's largest phone maker and it was expected they'd continue to be. Fast forward to now and Nokia is completely out of the cell phone business from a consumer perspective.
Toyota sells a lot of cars now, but what you're doing today isn't what matters so much. It is what you're doing tomorrow that matters.
If the market moves slower could Toyota benefit from that? Perhaps. But I don't see the market shifting back to a landscape that would be favorable to them unless they made some smart acquisitions. The EV shift is going to radically redefine
what a car is to people in a way the ICE can't compete with. So they'd be able to sell them, but not at a premium.
Cars are going through a transition, as I mentioned earlier, where they are being moved from only being able to drive you from point A to point B to being a lot more. As the EV shift to a car that can always be "powered on" is going to be prove to be extremely disruptive.
Even the thought that ICE matters to enthusiasts who love the groan of an engine and the rumble of power from it is an increasingly smaller portion of the automotive market. The enthusiast landscape, including here, are rife with complaints that enthusiast focused cars are a dying breed as the majority of car buyers don't care enough. The majority are welcoming the new functions and aren't going to look back and enthusiasts who care will be able to spend the money to access ICE tech. Including, I'm sure, rebuilds and refinements to those used ICE cars long after the last one is officially sold.
Just like how I thought in 2007 that no one would want a phone without a keyboard... Here we are. Where no phone comes with one anymore.