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Toyota Motor Corp.’s January-March net profit totaled 664.6
billion yen ($4.6 billion), down from 997.6 billion yen the same
period a year ago. Quarterly sales totaled 12.36 trillion yen
($85.9 billion), up from 11 trillion yen.
Toyota has been strengthening the testing system of its vehicles
after acknowledging wide-ranging fraudulent testing, including
the use of inadequate or outdated data in crash tests, incorrect
testing of airbag inflation and engine power checks.
Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s chairman and the grandson of the
automaker’s founder, has apologized. The wrongdoing did not
affect the safety of vehicles already on roads, which include
the popular Corolla subcompact and Lexus luxury vehicles.
But the scandal has been a major embarrassment for a
manufacturer whose brand has been synonymous for decades with
quality and attention to detail.
For the fiscal year through March, Toyota reported a 4.77
trillion yen ($33 billion) profit, down from 4.94 trillion yen
the previous fiscal year.
Annual sales reached a record 48 trillion yen ($333.6 billion),
up from 45 trillion yen. Toyota is forecasting sales of 48.5
trillion yen ($337 billion) for the fiscal year through March
2026.
Its profit forecast was less bullish, citing costs to meet
carbon neutrality demands, as well as the impact of President
Donald Trump’s U.S. tariffs on operating income, which was
factored in tentatively at 180 billion yen ($1.3 billion),
according to Toyota. That estimate covers April and May, meaning
it could grow in coming months.
Consolidated vehicle sales for the fiscal year through March
totaled 9.36 million vehicles, down slightly from 9.44 million
vehicles the previous fiscal year.
Cost reduction and marketing efforts worked as pluses countering
the negatives, including the production shutdown spanning
several months in the U.S. due to quality issues, Toyota
officials said.
Toyota also said the portion of electric vehicles it was selling
was steadily growing. Sometimes Toyota has been criticized as
falling behind in the global move toward EVs, partly because it
has an extensive lineup of other kinds of green cars, including
hybrids.
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