Toyota is a Fragile Giant
The world's largest and most profitable automobile manufacturer is a Japanese corporation built by a family of mechanical engineers. It has however failed succession and now seems unlikely to adapt.
Toyota Motor Corporation is the largest automobile manufacturer in the world, producing over 10 million vehicles annually in recent years. It is also the world’s most profitable auto maker by far, generating earnings of $46 billion in 2024, more than double that of second-ranked Volkswagen.1 At over $200 billion (TM) as of April 2025, Toyota is also the most valuable company in Japan, as well as the largest company by number of employees, employing almost 400,000 people.2 In many ways, Toyota has been and continues to be one of the most functional and significant industrial organizations in the world. But while the global auto industry is pursuing a transition to the electric vehicle market, Toyota maintains the vehicles of the future will not be primarily electric.