Toyota Motor Corp incoming President and Chief Executive Koji Sato attends a news conference in Tokyo, Japan on Feb 13.After making sweeping changes to its leadership team, Japan's Toyota Motor Corp is looking at a factory floor overhaul as it maps out a move to a new, dedicated platform for battery electric vehicles, four people familiar with the matter said.
The world's biggest automaker increasingly recognises it needs to match Tesla Inc's design and manufacturing innovations if it is to drive down production costs and turn its all-electric business into a higher margin one as its Silicon Valley rival has done, another person said.A new EV platform, if implemented, would be the result of a far-reaching review of Toyota's electric-car strategy undertaken last year.
The sources declined to be identified because the information was confidential. Asked for comment, Toyota said questions could be asked at Friday's briefing. Several projects that were supposed to take advantage of the e-TNGA platform are now being delayed or cancelled, a separate person said.Under former CEO Akio Toyoda, the founder's grandson who became chairman on April 1 when Sato took the top job, Toyota saw global demand for battery electrics outstrip its modest estimates.
Tesla made almost eight times the profit per vehicle as Toyota for the third quarter, partly because of its ability to simplify production and reduce cost.