Toyota today announced a 4.4-billion dollar annual loss, its first ever, and warned it would plunge deeper into the red as car sales collapse during the recession. Toyota posts first loss, sees worse ahead Does this means that Incentives on the 2010 Prius are not too far off?
Wow, hate to hear that, but I guess it was inevitable in this market. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they start offering incentives and discounts if sales of the 2010 don't take off as anticipated, esp. with such lofty sales goals (180k units this year.)
Incentives? Probably for what ever vehicles are NOT moving. Guzzler sales have picked up because those are the most heavily incentivized. Whether the the Prius is, well that's yet to be seen. The article may be a day late & a dollar short. The economy shows early signs of stabilizing in that 36,000 jobs have come back to the unemployed (yea, still just a drop in the bucket) and home sales are picking up . The article's really about Toyota in general, as opposed to the 2010.
:blah: Very unfortunate that they lost that much. I knew they were going to lose, but not near that figure...
Yea but what's that say about the state of the economy when a company that hasn't posted a loss since the the 30's has one now? And they forecast even more for the rest of the year. Which brings up what I've been saying, regardless of what some others say, it will be a buyers market, even for the Prius after the initial surge. Mark ups and MSRP? No way!
Here's what I posted on the big GM forum... in response to their spin: Where did the losses come from? Was it throwing out the baby with the bathwater like GM, doing everything necessary for the sake of survival? Or was it proactively accepting the contraction of the guzzler market and investing even more into efficiency vehicles? The retooling of production for the 2010 Prius, which about 90 percent of the technology for it is new, took place during the first quarter. Think about how the year-end results will look. Meeting the goal of selling 100,000 Prius here between mid-May and the end of December will make that investment a sound business decision. .
The problems as alluded to in the linked article are primarily... too much capacity in BOF-type vehicles that are dying off; too much capacity in a worldwide market that was and is shrinking this year; dependence on the US and Europe where currency issue cost it a probably 10-15% loss in revenue. This is why most of the vehicles from Japan except the Prius will be cut back to almost nothing in 2009. The three empty or semi-empty plants here are not helping either ( San Antonio, Tupelo, Princeton ). Let's see how quick and nimble the giant is.
This is just Toyota's past coming back to haunt them. In the past 5 years Toyota has invested massively in trucks and SUV's as well as in additional production capacity. The reality is even worse than the headline. Yes, Toyota lost $4.4 billion for the year, but they lost $7.7 billion in the last quarter. It will be interesting to see how they turn that around because right now their losses are rapidly accelerating. I'm also interested to see if VW maintains their number 1 sales position for the rest of the year. It would be ironic if Toyota dethroned GM only to lose the title of world's largest automaker one year later to VW. (VW made $313 million in the first quarter of 2009 and sold more vehicles than any other automaker.)
You got the wrong news, VW 1 place is their rumored news. shame on VW to show something doesn't exist. in the first quater, VW 1.33 m, toyota 1.77 m. search toyota ,first quater, vw, you will get the result.
Vw is a force in the auto industry. The VW Golf just got world car of the year and is by far the best selling car in Europe. The Golf diesel is due here in November and VW is going for the hybrid market at full speed.
I am talking about the 1st quarter of 2009. That is VW's 1Q09 and Toyota's 4Q08. (Toyota's fiscal year ends March 31st so their 1Q09 won't end until June 30th, 2009)) For the period from Jan 1st, 2009 to March 30th, 2009: VW (1Q09) ---------- 1.39 million sales (Down 11% year over year) Toyota (4Q08) ------ 1.29 million sales (Down 47% year over year)
no, although toyota has its own fiscal year,for those news agent, they report by calendar year. you can only compare toyota 1Q09 VS VW 1Q09, it's kind of ridiculous to compare toyota 4Q08 VS VW 1Q09. compariosn by calendar year is the only fair way to go.
I am comparing the 1st quarter of the calender year 2009. That period of time is Toyota's fiscal 4th quarter of 2008. It is VW's fiscal 1st quarter of 2009. The media reports are also very clearly comparing the two companies sales in January, February, and March of 2009. In this period of time VW sold more cars than Toyota. Volkswagen may oust Toyota as world leader | Reuters