Toyota stands out from its Japanese pals — SUVs and trucks are the key
Memorize the Bill of Rights... define what "unnecessary roughness" means, and reveal the size of your truck. That's the modern citizenship test for foreign carmakers in the US — and Toyota is the only one passing. Mazda, Nissan, Honda, and Mitsubishi all struggle to sell cars to Americans, while Toyota's total sales jumped 4.5% last quarter to 7.6T yen ($70B) globally. Here's why:
- Smaller cars: They represent just 28% of all vehicle sales in America last quarter. Picture little Civics, Accords, and Corollas (aka Uber driver go-to's).
- Trucks & SUVs: 4x4s, pickups, and 7-seaters are all the rage, making up a shocking 66% of new vehicle sales in America last quarter. This is one of Toyota's money-makers.
It's all about destroying muda... We're not shocked that Toyota's winning in cars, trucks, and SUVs. Its passionate culture is committed to eliminating waste — "muda," as the Japanese call it. It would be wasteful to produce tiny coupes and sedans that Americans don't want, so Toyota invested years ago in assembly lines for its hefty Tundra, Tacoma, 4Runner, and Rav 4 truck/SUVs.
America created the assembly line. Toyota perfected it... Thanks to Toyota's anti-muda obsession, it runs an insanely efficient shop, wringing more profits out of each vehicle sale than other car brands. We crunched some numbers on profit per car sold for last quarter:
- Tesla made $268 per car sold.
- Ford brought in $1,400.
- Toyota snagged a cool $2,300 in cold, hard, profit for each car it sold (and it expects to sell 9M of them this year).