Affected by global economic turbulence, Japan's long-term economic growth has been sluggish, and investors are interested in transferring funds to relatively stable blue chip stocks. Toyota Motor's market value reached 48.7 trillion yen (approximately 328.8 billion US dollars) at the close of the Tokyo stock market on January 23, breaking the Japanese company's market value record.
Toyota's share price in Tokyo rose for five consecutive days, and its total market value exceeded the highest value of the telecommunications company NTT in the foam economy. Since the beginning of this year, Toyota's stock price has risen by 15%.
The rise in Toyota's stock price is consistent with the overall rise in the current Japanese stock market. At the beginning of the year, the Nikkei 225 index hit a 34 year high, and the Tokyo Composite Index also rose to its highest point since 1990. The improvement in corporate profits is the main factor driving the Japanese stock market.
Toyota expects its consolidated operating profit to increase by over 60% year-on-year in the fiscal year ending in March this year, reaching 4.5 trillion yen (approximately 30.5 billion US dollars). If implemented, Toyota will become the first Japanese company to achieve operating profits exceeding 4 trillion yen.
The depreciation of the Japanese yen has boosted exports, improved vehicle performance has led to price increases, and higher market demand has enhanced Toyota's profitability. Japan's SBI Securities believes that Toyota's profit margin will still surpass Tesla in the 2024 fiscal year.
Contrary to the fierce price war in China, Toyota's new car trading prices have risen nearly 20% in its main consumer market, the United States, within four years.
The latest data shows that Toyota's global sales reached 10.22 million units in the first 11 months of last year, about 1.9 million units higher than Volkswagen, and is expected to rank first in the world for four consecutive years. MarkLines data shows that Toyota still has a large number of unfinished orders in North America, with inventory levels far below the average, and sales will continue to maintain a high level in the short term.
Fuel powered models are the absolute mainstay of Toyota's sales growth. In the third quarter of last year, the sales of brand pure electric models accounted for only 1%.
Toyota, which relies heavily on traditional energy, lowered its sales target for electric vehicles in November last year. Senior executive Akio Toyoda, who has long resisted electrification, recently publicly stated that pure electric vehicles can only occupy a maximum market share of 30%, and the remaining will be occupied by hybrid vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and fuel vehicles.
This statement drew a response from Tesla CEO, and Musk expressed regret on social media. He once warned that traditional car companies would be eliminated if they did not accelerate their electrification transformation, just like film giant Kodak was abandoned by the digital age.
Under the trend of global energy transformation and development pressure in China, Takeo Toyoda's successor, Hiroshi Sato, has accelerated the pace of electric transformation. Due to the weak competitiveness of existing mass-produced models, Toyota, which has a weak voice in the electric field, sees solid-state batteries with the potential to significantly increase energy density as the key to overtaking on curves. The high expectations of investors for the commercialization of solid-state batteries have also supported Toyota's stock price.
Decades ago, Toyota announced that it would achieve small-scale production of solid-state batteries by 2025 and stable production by 2030. However, due to lower than expected research and development progress, the company subsequently made multiple adjustments to the relevant plans.
A battery development practitioner told Interface News that solid-state battery technology is feasible in the laboratory, but the testing conditions are relatively strict, making it difficult to implement in practical application scenarios of electric vehicles. In addition, the high cost of solid electrolytes also restricts their large-scale application. Toyota has frequently announced progress in solid-state battery research, which is likely to boost market confidence.
Besides solid-state batteries, investors expect Toyota to ride the trend of hydrogen fuel vehicles. According to Toyota's forecast, the hydrogen energy market in Europe, China, and North America will experience explosive growth by 2030. The company will promote the external sales of fuel cells, with an expected export order size of 100000 vehicles, most of which are commercial vehicles.
It is worth noting that although Toyota's market value has broken Japanese company records, it still lags far behind global giants. According to data from market research firm QUICK FactSet, based on the global ranking of US dollar market value calculated at the closing price on January 22, Toyota ranks 25th globally, about one ninth of Apple and Microsoft. Among Asian companies, Toyota's market value is lower than TSMC and Samsung Electronics.