Toyoda said this during a recent financial presentation.
Toyota sold 10 million units last year.
Tesla plans to build 500,000 this year.
Akio Toyoda, current Toyota CEO and grandson of the giant Japanese automaker, took a swing at Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk. In a few words, he said that Tesla is like a chef with a single recipe.
What Toyoda is saying somewhat makes sense. In restaurant business terms, Toyota is a full-on kitchen with a menu, a staff, a chef, and much more. Tesla, on the other hand, has little…
Akio Toyoda, Toyota CEO | Photo: Toyota
Business Insider reports that Toyoda said this during Toyota’s second-quarter financial presentation:
“What we have and what Tesla doesn’t have is the units in operation — more than 100 million vehicles out in the world,” he said, before launching into the food-service simile.
“Tesla‘s business, if I can say, is a business is like a — you can use the analogy of kitchen and a chef, I think,” he continued. “The kitchen and the chef, they have not created a real business yet or a real-world yet, but they’re trying to trade the recipes. And the chef is saying that, ‘Well, our recipe is going to become the standard of the world in the future.’ I think that is the kind of business they have.”
“Toyota, on the other hand, has “a real kitchen” and a “real chef, too,” he finally added.
Toyota plans to electrify its entire lineup in the near future, which brought on the comparison.
Electric Toyota SUVs | Photo: Toyota via Autohome
