TOKYO — Toyota doubled its net profit in the fiscal year ended in March as strong car sales and a favorable exchange rate boosted the top Japanese automaker's results.
Toyota Motor Corp.'s annual profit totaled 4.9 trillion yen ($31.9 billion), up from 2.45 trillion yen the year before, while revenue rose 21% to 45 trillion yen ($290 billion), the company said on Wednesday.
The results exceeded Toyota's own forecast of a profit of 4.5 trillion yen ($29 billion), while global sales rose to 9.4 million vehicles from 8.8 million vehicles in the previous fiscal year.
Hybrid sales performed well, although Toyota emphasized that it is working hard to offer different types of electric vehicles, including battery EVs, plug-ins and fuel cell models.
A weak yen worked as a big plus for Toyota, which makes the Camry, Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models. According to Toyota, the US dollar averaged 145 Japanese yen last fiscal year, compared to 135 yen the year before.
For the January-March quarter, Toyota earned 997.6 billion yen ($6.4 billion), up from 552 billion yen the year before, on sales of 11 trillion yen ($71 billion), up from of 9.7 trillion yen.
The company, based in Toyota City in central Japan, now expects to sell 9.5 million vehicles during this fiscal year, with sales expected to grow in the US and the rest of Asia.
Toyota said it will make significant investments in areas such as technology research in the coming months to support long-term growth.
It expects net profit for the fiscal year through March 2025 to fall nearly 28% to 3.57 trillion yen ($23 billion), with spending also including investments in employees at suppliers and dealers who call it “human capital ' mentions.
“The latest results show that our efforts have paid off, but we must continue to grow with the vision of becoming a mobility company,” CEO Koji Sato told reporters.
Toyota must meet challenges in a way that Sato describes as more dramatic than Toyota's trademark “kaizen,” which refers to daily improvements that originate on the factory floor.
Developing eco-friendly vehicles while maintaining Toyota's impeccable reputation for safety and quality requires the company to “strengthen the ground on which it stands.”
The auto industry is undergoing a major transformation away from old-fashioned gasoline engines, especially in markets like China where electric vehicles dominate and some analysts say automakers like Toyota may have fallen behind.
Like other manufacturers, Toyota was hit hard by a shortage of computer chips and other components during the pandemic. The latest results show that the sector has recovered from the production crisis.
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Yuri Kageyama is on X: https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
