Quote:
Originally Posted by immorality
Didn't Toyota announce a $70 Billion dollar investment into electrification a month ago? $70 billion sounds like some serious shit, although they should have done it a long time ago.
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Look at what they do, don't listen to what they say.
Right now, EV production is already constrained by the amount of cell made available on the market. Tesla, VW, Ford and GM all locked themselves into long term battery cell contracts with battery producers, who basically pre-sold their future increase in production. And from there, you can basically derive the potential production and market share in the next 5yr horizon.
By not seriously revising their expenses toward EV related expenditures, Toyota is risking itself to be left behind. They'd either have to pay a huge premium for whatever remaining on the market, or make do to subpar products.
Tesla is valued as it is today because it's the only carmaker that's truly "all-in" on EV. All their capex are spent on more batteries, more efficient productions and more volume. It thinks from an EV perspective and nothing else. They are trying to make people to adapt to the new normal, just like how we shifted from old dumb phone to smartphones, and not trying to come up with half-way solutions just so that people can accommodate their ICE "habits".
Switching from ICE to EV is not something of a flip of a switch. If you look at the recent interview Herbert Diess (VW group CEO) did with t, there are a lot of things involved to go from ICE production to EV. They all take time and money. If Toyota is not doing it today (as in actually signing contracts with other important partners)... it doesn't matter what it says. It can say it plans to spend 1T for the next decade to go EV, but until deals are done, they've got nothing other than some talk to ease off investors' worries that they are being too stubborn.