The Japanese car giant led the industry for decades, but the electric revolution has caused upheaval in global manufacturing, leaving Tesla to claim the crown.
The surprise leadership shuffle at Toyota, renewed urgency at Renault and Nissan to restructure their alliance, and Elon Musk’s declaration that Tesla will be the world’s number one car maker by a wide margin have one thing in common: what once defined the global car industry’s centre is no longer holding.
Musk hinted again on Wednesday that Tesla was working on a new vehicle that could sell profitably for less than $US30,000 , which would compete against mass market models from Toyota, Volkswagen, Ford and General Motors.Musk has in the past teased products that took far longer to deliver than he initially promised, such as the long-delayed Cybertruck.
The shocks of the pandemic, two years of supply chain chaos and possibly a recession this year are colliding with a once-in-a-century shift in the industry’s fundamental technology.As combustion vehicles give way to electric vehicles with high-powered computer chips for brains, many of the advantages of incumbency that Toyota enjoyed are withering away.
Incumbent car makers can no longer count on refinement of mature vehicle technology to stay competitive. Established companies are investing heavily in EVs; some faster and with more success than others.