Toyota making cutbacks, may not show a profit this year.
Among other cutbacks, Toyota and Isuzu have shelved plans to develop a new diesel engine together, while Toyota may hold off planned capacity increases in India, Brazil and China and the revamp of a production line at its Takaoka plant in Japan.
The savings could help Toyota avoid falling into loss during the second half of its financial year which runs through March.
Can’t imagine they’d be interested in picking up operations from a bankrupted Big Three under these circumstances.
They better start innovating, restructuring, making cars people want, firing all their execs, and fix that UAW problem…
wait
Or they could start by making cars with paint that doesn’t chip, and maybe some sedans that have some style, instead of Camrys and Corollas with slap on 1980’s-style aero packages. And are they the leading manufacturer of cheap hubcaps yet? Twas a time when Detroit was all about hubcaps; now Toyota is littering the roads with plastic hubcaps (how long before they degrade?) and maybe they could produce some eco-friendly cars that didn’t have all those lead batteries. And wasn’t Japan the first country to fly suicide airplane missions into Americans?
I’m just sayin’.
Honda and Nissan join the ranks of troubled car companies.
All that changed Dec. 17. Speaking at a hastily arranged press conference in Tokyo, Honda Chief Executive Officer Takeo Fukui, flanked by solemn-looking fellow executives, announced a huge downward revision in the company’s earnings. Honda now says it will earn $2.1 billion this fiscal year, 62% less than it said just six weeks ago. Sales are now expected to plunge $4.5 billion, to $131 billion, 10.3% worse than previously expected. That means Honda expects to lose more than $2.1 billion in the six months through March 2009 after making $4.2 billion during the first half. “The situation is worsening every day in all regions,” Fukui told a packed press conference at the company’s Tokyo headquarters.
In an earlier announcement, Nissan (NSANY) said it would cut production in Japan by a further 78,000 from January, which means it has now announced cuts of 238,000 vehicles in Japan. Nissan, which started the fiscal year in April with 2,000 temporary employees, also said it will employ none by March 2009.