Toyota Motor Corp.

Joby Aviation reported Q2 revenue of $38.64 million against a $30.38 million consensus and raised its fiscal 2026 revenue guidance to $115 million to $125 million, with CEO JoeBen Bevirt saying the company is preparing for commercial service and targeting its first EIPP flights in Dallas-Fort Worth this month. The stock trades at $6.26, down 52.57% year-to-date and 56.49% over the past year, well below its $19.98 52-week high. Joby's FAA Stage 4 certification progress has moved from 6% to 20%, Blade seats sold rose more than 50% year-over-year in Q2, and the company counts a $250 million direct investment from Toyota, a Virgin Atlantic UK partnership, and a Dubai vertiport network among its supports. Against rival Archer Aviation, which carries a $4.02 billion market cap and posted just $5 million in Q2 revenue, Joby's $6.04 billion valuation rests on a larger revenue base. Risks include an operating margin of -1,346.92%, guided H2 2026 cash use of $385 million to $415 million, prior raises of $1.2 billion in February and $576 million in October 2025, and certification timing that could slip into 2027.

Automotive analyst John Murphy has predicted hybrids will account for 34% of the U.S. market by 2030, up from just over 18% in 2026, a shift that could redirect investor attention from speculative EV startups to established automakers and the automotive ETFs holding them. Hybrid electric vehicles reached a record 16% of light-duty vehicle sales in the second quarter of 2026, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, while battery electric vehicles saw their market share decline to 6% from 7% the previous year. Toyota, Honda and Hyundai Motor Group currently control 86% of the surging U.S. hybrid market, according to Baum & Associates data cited by CNBC, with Toyota selling over 600,000 hybrids in the United States in the first half of 2026 for a 50% market share and Honda's hybrids now accounting for 31% of American Honda's total sales. The shift has been driven by the expiration of the federal $7,500 EV tax credit in September 2025, which raised the cost of pure EVs by thousands of dollars overnight, and by hybrid pricing that has dropped considerably, with Toyota, Honda, Ford, Hyundai and Kia pushing hybrid variants into their most popular mainstream models at a modest upcharge of $1,500-$2,000. Among the funds positioned for the trend, the Global X Autonomous & Electric Vehicles ETF DRIV, with net assets of $359.2 million, has gained 12.3% year to date and charges 68 basis points, while the First Trust S-Network Future Vehicles & Technology ETF CARZ, with net assets of $46.7 million, has rallied 33% year to date and charges 70 basis points, and the State Street SPDR S&P Kensho Smart Mobility ETF HAIL, with assets under management of $18 million, has risen 3.7% year to date and charges 45 basis points.

Indonesian new vehicle sales rose 32% year-on-year to 81,756 units in August 2026, up from 61,771 units a year earlier, according to wholesale data from the local automotive industry association Gaikindo. For the first eight months of 2026, the market expanded 20% to 599,491 units, with light passenger vehicle sales up over 13% to 437,374 units and commercial vehicle sales up 42% to 162,117 units, including a 54% surge in light- and medium-duty trucks to 131,813 units. Battery electric vehicle sales nearly doubled to 103,300 units year-to-date from 53,100 units, driven by Chinese brands and government tax incentives. Toyota led the first eight months with sales up 9% to 175,931 units, followed by Daihatsu at 100,884 units, Suzuki at 47,908 units and Mitsubishi Motors at 43,753 units, while BYD jumped 98% to 37,696 units to take fifth place ahead of Honda, which fell 37% to 26,437 units. Overall vehicle production rose 13% to 859,256 units in the period, and GlobalData forecasts Indonesia light vehicle sales to rise 3% to 770,000 units in 2026 from 750,000 units in 2025, easing to 765,000 units in 2027.

Toyota Motor is broadening its hydrogen strategy with plans to launch a fuel-cell-powered Hilux in Europe in 2028, targeting corporate fleets and leasing companies rather than mainstream pickup buyers. The hydrogen Hilux is expected to deliver more than 400 kilometers of range and tow up to 2.5 metric tons, though Toyota has not yet disclosed pricing or full production specifications after first showing a prototype in Britain in 2023. Toyota will compete in the Dakar Rally beginning in January 2027 with a vehicle based on the hydrogen-powered Hilux to showcase durability and performance. The launch fits a broader commercial-vehicle expansion in which Toyota Professional is targeting 200,000 light commercial vehicle sales in Europe by 2030, roughly 20% above 2025 levels, while lifting market share to 8% from 6%. Separately, Toyota unveiled a next-generation hydrogen fuel-cell system for heavy-duty trucks, a 300-kilowatt system delivering twice the output and durability of its predecessor while improving fuel efficiency by 20%, which it plans to supply to Scania and Iveco for pilot programs.

Vietnam's new vehicle market fell 13% in August to 18,891 units from 21,688 units a year earlier, according to wholesale data from the Vietnam Automotive Manufacturers Association, a figure that excludes major players such as VinFast, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan. For the first eight months of 2026, the market expanded 8% to 193,898 units from 178,834 units a year earlier, helped by GDP growth of 8.4% year on year in the second quarter. Light passenger vehicle sales rose 7% year-to-date to 129,934 units and commercial vehicle sales rose 12% to 63,964 units. Truong Hai sales rose 8% to 60,124 units, Toyota was up 14% to 47,043 units and Mitsubishi jumped 32% to 28,042 units, while Ford fell 9% to 26,603 units and Honda dropped 10% to 14,435 units. VinFast separately reported a 72% surge in domestic battery electric vehicle sales to 154,703 units year-to-date, and GlobalData expects total light vehicle sales in Vietnam to rise 10% to 617,000 units this year.

Iridium Communications and Deutsche Telekom IoT announced the successful transmission of a voice message over Iridium NTN Direct in a demonstration with Toyota, following the completion of technical integration and a global roaming agreement between the two companies. The message was sent from a Toyota vehicle equipped with a Nordic Semiconductor nRF9151 development board and a Deutsche Telekom IoT SIM, and was transmitted entirely via the Iridium satellite network during Telekom Satellite Day 2026. The first message sent, "testing, testing, one, two, freeway," demonstrated standards-based NB-IoT voice messaging over Iridium's fully operational low-Earth orbit satellite constellation, supported by Fraunhofer's AI-based NESC Voice Codec, which operates at bitrates of 1 kb/s or less. With the roaming agreement now completed, eligible Deutsche Telekom IoT customers using compatible standards-based NB-IoT devices will be able to roam between terrestrial networks and Iridium satellites, and selected European customers are already testing applications on the Iridium network using Deutsche Telekom's Global SIM. Iridium NTN Direct is slated for commercial availability in Q4 2026, extending coverage through Iridium's existing global L-band LEO constellation for automotive, logistics, remote utilities, smart agriculture and emergency response applications.

Toyota Motor announced on the 10th that it has launched the GR KART, an entry-level racing kart, under its motorsport brand GR. The suggested retail price is 385,000 yen, and it is said to be the world's first racing kart produced by a complete vehicle manufacturer. No license is required, and it can be driven on kart courses across the country, though it cannot be driven on public roads. The aim is to broaden the gateway into motorsport, and Toyota says it wants people to experience the joy of driving from childhood. The GR KART measures 182 centimeters in length, 116 centimeters in width, and 67 centimeters in height, with adjustable steering wheel and pedal positions to accommodate heights from 135 to 185 centimeters. It can be transported without disassembly in the minivans Noah and Voxy, and can also be stored upright.

Toyota Motor has launched a new business built around a napping device called TOTONE. Takashi Kaneko, who leads development, took the stage on August 27 at an advance media day for the "Power Nap Culture Lab Osaka" demonstration event held at Grand Green Osaka in Umekita, Osaka, and spoke about the aims of the business. TOTONE is a napping device based on the premium seats of the luxury minivans Alphard and Vellfire, with most of its components repurposed from automotive parts, and it structures a 15-minute nap as 12 minutes of falling asleep and 3 minutes of waking up. The business runs with a team of 3-4 people, a fraction of the hundreds involved in vehicle development, and its production capacity is limited to 200-300 units a year. Kaneko explained that "because a new business is something new, only innovators will buy it," and said the company is deliberately holding back on both investment and staffing. When Toyota approached its dealerships about carrying the product, they refused, asking why they should sell something that is not a car, he said, and until the company can steadily sell 20 units a month, it plans to visit customers itself. At one adopter, All Nippon Airways, maintenance workers have begun taking naps before their 2 a.m. inspection and servicing. That day, Toyota unveiled for the first time its "Nap White Paper 2026," a survey of 1,038 company employees in their 20s to 50s nationwide, which found that 85.9 percent feel sleepy during work hours, while only 10.4 percent take naps regularly. The top reason cited for finding it hard to nap was "it looks like I'm slacking off," at 53.2 percent, and the top concern when taking a nap was "what those around me think," at 54.8 percent.

Stratasys Ltd. has launched the F870 FDM system, a large-format additive manufacturing platform designed for factory-floor production, and Toyota Production Engineering and Rivian Automotive are already adopting it for tooling and manufacturing aids. The F870 features a build volume of 1000 x 610 x 610 mm and offers the longest heated build capacity in its class, supporting materials like Nylon 12CF, ASA, ABS, and new FDM ABS Draft. Early deployments focus on automotive tooling and inspection gauges, reducing machining lead times. The system will be showcased at IMTS 2026 in Chicago from September 14–19.

Autoliv, the worldwide leader in automotive safety systems, is advancing vehicle safety through its new Human Body Model Safety Suite, a virtual testing platform designed to complement physical crash testing, with Toyota as the first customer to evaluate its capabilities. The platform combines an advanced digital human body model with software tools for analysis and visualization, providing insights into occupant response and injury mechanisms that physical dummies cannot offer. Autoliv's Chief Technology Officer, Fabien Dumont, emphasized that virtual testing helps engineers optimize safety performance earlier in the development process, supporting the company's vision of saving more lives. Toyota has begun using the suite as part of its virtual safety development activities, and Autoliv plans to make the platform broadly available across the industry in 2026. The company, which reported sales of $10.8 billion in 2025 and employs 64,000 people across 25 countries, says its products saved approximately 40,000 lives and reduced around 600,000 injuries last year.

Toyota Motor is targeting a roughly 40% increase in operating profit generated outside new-vehicle sales, aiming for 3 trillion yen ($19.23 billion) by fiscal 2030, Nikkei Asia reported. The Japanese automaker plans to expand what it calls "value chain revenue," which includes software updates, leasing, sales financing, and parts sales tied to the roughly 150 million Toyota vehicles currently in use globally. This segment currently delivers operating profit of around 2.1 trillion yen, with the company planning annual increases of about 150 billion yen through to 2030. The 3 trillion yen target would account for roughly 80% of Toyota's consolidated operating profit for the year ended March. Software-defined vehicles sit at the core of the plan, and Toyota has introduced a paid service letting GR Yaris and GR Corolla owners adjust vehicle functions through a smartphone app. Parts supply is also being scaled up, with a new warehouse in Belgium and plans to strengthen presence in Italy and eastern Europe. Used-car sales form another strand, aiming to lift annual domestic sales to 550,000 units by 2030 from around 350,000. Toyota sold 10.53 million vehicles in 2025, ahead of Volkswagen's 8.98 million and Hyundai Motor's 7.27 million. Value chain revenue executive vice president Yoichi Miyazaki said the company will maintain its current growth pace through increasing vehicles in operation and expanding regionally and nationally. Toyota reported a 75.6% rise in net income to 1.47 trillion yen for the first quarter of its 2027 financial year and raised its FY2027 guidance. Consolidated sales revenue for the three months to 30 June 2026 reached 13.52 trillion yen, up 10.4% year on year. The company is intensifying efforts to strengthen profitability amid pressures from the Middle East conflict, US import tariffs, and Chinese competition. President and CEO Kenta Kon said last month that the company's break-even volume is high and they want to reverse this.

Toyota Motor has announced a major investment to upgrade and expand its vehicle production operations in Vietnam, including new facilities and automation to support local manufacturing of hybrid-electric models. The roughly US$280 million outlay will add hybrid-electric vehicles to its Vietnam lineup, responding to rising demand and local policy focus on lower emissions. This move strengthens Toyota's manufacturing presence in Southeast Asia and reshapes its future product mix in the region. The company, with a ¥36.4 trillion market cap, produces vehicles across Asia, North America, and Europe, and this expansion fits into its broader international manufacturing network. While the news leans toward the bull case by showing follow-through on electrification, the profitability impact remains unproven, and investors will watch upcoming quarterly or annual reports for details on unit capacity, hybrid mix, and cash flow coverage.

Toyota Motor is considering using hydrogen as an energy source for trucks that transport auto parts, following rising oil prices and energy supply pressures due to the conflict with Iran. Vice Chairman Koji Sato revealed that in the long term, hydrogen use could be expanded to power factories and the logistics networks of suppliers. The plan is part of Toyota's commitment as a member of the Japan Hydrogen Association to push hydrogen to account for 1% of all logistics, fuel, and raw material transportation. Currently, 67 companies and organizations have joined. Meanwhile, global investment in clean hydrogen projects exceeds $110 billion as of July 2025, up $35 billion from the previous year. However, hydrogen vehicle adoption in Japan remains far below targets, with fewer than 8,300 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the road as of March 2025, compared to a target of 200,000 by 2025. Sato, who also serves as chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), is also pushing for common parts standards among automakers to reduce costs and improve efficiency amid intense competition from Chinese brands and trade protectionist policies.

For the first time in Europe, Germany is bringing together the full ecosystem needed to scale hydrogen truck deployment by 2030, as Volvo Group, Daimler Truck, Toyota Motor Corporation, Bosch, Air Liquide, TotalEnergies, TEAL Mobility, and MB Energy join forces with German policymakers to commercialize hydrogen-powered mobility. The collaboration will deploy hydrogen refueling stations along key strategic corridors in Europe, synchronized with hydrogen-powered truck fleets and a competitive hydrogen price, enabling customers to achieve a competitive total cost of ownership. Full details will be unveiled at a CEO-led press event during IAA Transportation in Hanover on September 15.

SUB A CAR, the personal car rental service under the Akanei Capital group, has announced the addition of five alternative energy vehicles, including hybrids (HEV) and fully electric vehicles (BEV): the Toyota Yaris Cross HEV Premium, Toyota Corolla Cross HEV Premium Luxury, Honda HR-V e:HEV EL, BYD Atto 2 Premium, and MG4 X Long Range. This move responds to modern travel trends where consumers prioritize convenience, technology, and alternative energy. The company stated that this expansion allows customers to try alternative energy vehicles before making a purchase decision, while enhancing the rental experience with home delivery and pickup, a single fee with no surcharges, unlimited mileage, no deposit required, and first-class insurance on all vehicles.

Domestic new car sales in August rose 2.0% from a year earlier to 307,374 units, marking the fifth consecutive month of growth, according to data released on the 1st by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association and the Japan Light Motor Vehicle and Motorcycle Association. Sales of standard passenger cars and commercial vehicles increased 9.1% to 203,664 units, with five automakers including Toyota Motor and Nissan Motor posting double-digit gains. Suzuki saw a significant 19.9% increase, driven by strong demand for models such as the Jimny Nomad. In contrast, mini-vehicle sales fell 9.5% to 103,710 units, the first decline in two months, as fewer fully redesigned models were introduced, and five of the eight manufacturers reported decreases. Some manufacturers with plants in the Kyushu region also felt the impact of production halts caused by the July Kumamoto earthquake.

Domestic new car sales in August rose 2.0% from a year earlier to 307,374 units, marking the fifth consecutive month of growth. The Japan Automobile Dealers Association and the Japan Light Motor Vehicle and Motorcycle Association announced the figures on the 1st. Sales of standard passenger cars and commercial vehicles increased 9.1% to 203,664 units, with five companies including Toyota Motor and Nissan Motor posting double-digit gains. Suzuki saw a significant 19.9% increase, driven by strong demand for the Jimny Nomad. In contrast, mini-vehicle sales fell 9.5% to 103,710 units, the first decline in two months, as fewer fully redesigned models were introduced, and five of the eight manufacturers reported declines. Some manufacturers with plants in the Kyushu region were also affected by production stoppages due to the July Kumamoto earthquake.

General Motors' lead over Toyota in U.S. vehicle sales has narrowed to just over 100,000 vehicles through July, with both automakers at around 1.5 million sales, according to The Wall Street Journal. GM sold roughly twice as many vehicles as Toyota two decades ago, and Cox Automotive analyst Charlie Chesbrough told CNBC that GM may be looking over their shoulder and that Toyota could overtake it as the top-selling U.S. manufacturer by year-end. GM's Lansing, Michigan, battery plant, which GM scrapped and sold its stake in back in 2024, is now producing batteries for a $1.5 billion Toyota order, a symbolic marker of the shifting balance highlighted at a ribbon-cutting attended by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Despite the sales pressure, GM is on track for near-record operating profit, raised its free cash flow guidance to $9.5 billion to $11.5 billion, bought back $2.8 billion of stock in the first half, and holds $19.7 billion in automotive cash. GM still holds 42% share of full-size pickups, more than 10 points ahead of its nearest rival, a franchise no competitor has taken from GM in 40 years. However, GM's plants operate at 73% utilization, unchanged since 2018, versus 91.9% at Toyota, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, and Toyota offers hybrids across more than 20 U.S. models, from the Camry to the RAV4, Corolla Cross, and Highlander. Losing the top sales spot hurts GM's image and reputation, as GM has led U.S. sales since 1931, and seeing a local battery plant supply Toyota instead of GM shows a major foreign rival taking over American production.

Toyota Motor reported that electrified vehicles made up nearly 52% of its quarterly production, with 1.41 million of the 2.71 million cars built in the quarter ended June being electric rather than combustion-powered. The vast majority were hybrids, which combine battery power with a combustion engine, unlike Tesla's battery-only EVs. Hybrid sales in the U.S. reached 2.05 million in 2025, up 27.6% year over year, surpassing battery-electric vehicle sales of 1.26 million. Globally, hybrid sales grew 24.8% to 16.3 million units last year, outpacing BEV sales, and Imarc projects hybrid sales could reach 126 million units annually by 2034. Toyota, already the hybrid market leader with over 4.6 million hybrid sales last fiscal year, is well-positioned to benefit from this growth, posing an indirect threat to Tesla and BYD.

Toyota Motor is preparing a major expansion into advanced autonomous driving, with plans to bring a Level 2++ driver-assistance system to passenger vehicles beginning in 2028 before expanding it across more models from 2030. The strategy matters for investors because Toyota is deliberately developing technology capable of greater autonomy while initially commercializing it under a more conservative framework, potentially giving the automaker a lower-risk route into the self-driving race. The planned system will use artificial intelligence to handle more driving functions and reduce the frequency of human intervention, according to Nikkei. Toyota will pair the AI with a rules-based guardrail designed to detect and prevent potentially unsafe or unexpected behavior. Toyota's approach is unusual because its underlying development work reaches beyond what customers will initially receive. Akihiro Sarada, head of Toyota's Software Development Center, said, "We'll develop Level 4 technology from a technical standpoint but offer it commercially as Level 2++." That could allow Toyota to improve autonomous capabilities across millions of passenger vehicles without immediately taking on the regulatory and liability challenges associated with fully driverless operation. The company is moving faster in commercial vehicles, aiming to bring Level 4 capability to its e-Palette mobility vehicle during fiscal 2027. Toyota is also exploring a broader autonomous-driving partnership with Alphabet's Waymo, with which it previously reached a preliminary agreement to develop a new autonomous vehicle platform and examine how Waymo technology could eventually be incorporated into personally owned Toyota vehicles. For Toyota investors, the 2028 rollout itself is unlikely to materially change near-term earnings, but the bigger opportunity is whether Toyota can turn its enormous global vehicle base into a distribution advantage for autonomous-driving software.

Toyota Motor announced on the 27th that it will equip some models with an advanced version of its Level 2 driving assistance technology, called Level 2++, starting in 2028, with gradual expansion after 2030. Level 2++ uses AI to assist in situational awareness and driving decisions, enabling smoother lane changes, overtaking, merging and diverging, intersection passage, and parking. This is an area where U.S. Tesla and Chinese EV makers are leading. Nissan Motor also plans to launch vehicles equipped with this technology during fiscal 2027. Unlike Level 3, Level 2++ requires continuous driver monitoring and immediate intervention.

According to the Federation of Thai Industries, released on the 25th, July auto production totaled 117,383 units, up 6.12% year-on-year, turning positive from June's 7.55% decline. Domestic sales increased 20.07% year-on-year, accelerating from June's 17.26% growth. Exports also recovered, up 2.39% year-on-year, compared to June's 7.45% decrease. Thailand is Southeast Asia's largest auto production hub and serves as an export base for major global manufacturers such as Toyota and Honda. The federation forecasts that full-year auto production in 2026 will decline by 3.33%.