On the occasion of the Chinese Lunar New Year, it is also the time for multinational car companies to release their financial reports. In 2023, the global automotive industry gradually emerged from the haze of the pandemic and supply chain shortages. Under strong market demand, multiple multinational car companies have shown good growth trends in revenue and profits.
Among the seven car companies that have released their 2023 quarterly and annual financial reports, Toyota remained the most profitable company in the world that year. According to the financial report, in the third quarter of 2023 (October December 2023), Toyota achieved sales revenue of 12.04 trillion yen (approximately 80 billion US dollars), a year-on-year increase of 23.4%; Operating profit of 1.68 trillion yen (approximately 11.2 billion US dollars), a year-on-year increase of 75.7%; Net profit was 1.36 trillion yen (approximately 9.1 billion US dollars), an increase of 86.5% year-on-year.
Based on this calculation, Toyota's daily net profit in the fourth quarter of 2023 reached approximately $100 million, far ahead of other competitors who have already released financial reports.
"The third quarter earnings of 2023 exceeded analysts' expectations due to the depreciation of the Japanese yen and strong sales of high profit and hybrid vehicles." Toyota stated that in 2023, the company's total sales once again exceeded 10 million units, with hybrid vehicle sales accounting for about one-third of the total. In contrast, Volkswagen Group, which ranked second, had a sales volume of 9.24 million vehicles in 2023, which also means that Toyota Group's car sales have been the world's top for four consecutive years.
Looking at the entire fiscal year, Toyota's cumulative sales revenue from April to December 2023 was 34.02 trillion yen, operating profit reached 4.24 trillion yen, and net profit was 3.95 trillion yen. Meanwhile, benefiting from strong performance in the first three quarters of this fiscal year, Toyota has raised its net profit forecast for this fiscal year to 4.5 trillion yen, a year-on-year increase of 83.6%. The previous expectation was 3.95 trillion yen.
Other Japanese and Korean car companies have also performed equally well. According to the financial report, Honda Motor's revenue for the third quarter of 2023 (October December 2023) was 5.39 trillion yen (approximately 35.8 billion US dollars), a year-on-year increase of 21.45%; Net profit was 253.3 billion yen (approximately 1.7 billion US dollars), a year-on-year increase of 3.54%. Honda Motor said that thanks to strong sales in the United States, a stronger product portfolio with stronger profitability, and a weak yen, the company has raised its annual net profit forecast, with an expected net profit of 960 billion yen, compared to the previous estimate of 930 billion yen; Expected net sales of 20.20 trillion yen, previously estimated at 20.00 trillion yen.
According to the financial report, Hyundai Motor's revenue in the fourth quarter of 2023 increased by 8.3% year-on-year, reaching 41.7 trillion Korean won (approximately 31.2 billion US dollars); The net profit was 2.2 trillion Korean won (approximately 1.65 billion US dollars), an increase of 28.8% year-on-year. Hyundai Motor's annual revenue in 2023 reached 163 trillion Korean won, a year-on-year increase of 14.4%; The net profit was 12.3 trillion Korean won, with a year-on-year increase of 53.7%.
While Japanese and Korean car companies have benefited from the performance improvement brought about by the growth in sales in the US market, American car companies have been troubled by local worker strikes. On September 15, 2023, the United Association of Automobile Workers (UAW) officially launched a historic strike against Detroit's Big Three automakers, which lasted for six weeks. Ford stated that the strike resulted in a production loss of 80000 vehicles, and restarting production would be a "huge workload". In addition, the strike also caused Ford Motor to lose $1.3 billion.
According to the financial report, Ford Motor's revenue in the fourth quarter of 2023 was $46 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4%. Affected by strikes and adjustments to retirement benefits, Ford Motor suffered a net loss of $526 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. In 2023, Ford achieved a revenue of $176.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 11%, a net profit of $4.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 319.43%, and its net loss in 2022 reached $2 billion.
General Motors has performed relatively steadily domestically. In the fourth quarter of 2023, its revenue was $42.98 billion, a slight decrease of 0.3%, and its net profit was $2.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 5.1%. In 2023, the revenue reached a historic high of $171.8 billion, with a year-on-year increase of 9.6%; The net profit reached 10.1 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 1.94%.
Compared to traditional car giants, Tesla's performance in 2023 was lower than expected. In the fourth quarter of 2023, Tesla's revenue was $25.17 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3%, lower than market expectations of $25.87 billion; The net profit was 7.928 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 115%. The gross profit margin in the fourth quarter fell to 17.6%, with market expectations of 18.3%, the lowest since 2019. In 2023, Tesla's revenue was 96.77 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 19%; Net profit was $15 billion, a year-on-year increase of 19%.
Although traditional car companies represented by Toyota still maintain strong profitability with their strong product portfolio and strong market recovery, in the eyes of some netizens, this may be one of the reasons for their insufficient motivation for electrification transformation. A typical representative of this is Toyota, which earns billions of yuan per day. It is expected that pure electric vehicles will only occupy up to 30% of the global market share in the future, with the remaining 70% being occupied by hybrid vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and fuel vehicles. Toyota Motor Corporation President (Chairman) Akio Toyoda, who has always held a "rejection" attitude towards pure electric vehicles, has repeatedly criticized pure electric vehicles in 2023.
Not only Toyota, but also Ford, which achieved a turnaround in 2023, recently announced plans to slow down spending on new electric vehicle production capacity by approximately $12 billion. The reason given by Ford is: on the one hand, many consumers in North America are no longer willing to pay higher prices for electric cars than internal combustion engines or hybrid cars; On the other hand, although Ford and the entire automotive industry are experiencing an increase in electric vehicle sales, the growth rate has not met Ford's expectations.
In the current context of the gradual deepening of the electrification transformation in the global automotive industry, whether it is Toyota or Ford, their attitude towards electric vehicles is undoubtedly short-sighted. According to industry analysts, electrification transformation is not achieved overnight, as evidenced by the "first mover dividend" that Chinese car companies have seized. "Especially in the 'second half' of intelligence, traditional car companies need to have sufficient technological reserves."