Hi, welcome to another ColdFusion video.
Toyota, one of the world's most recognizable brands they're known to be affordable and reliable.
In fact I had a friend that didn't put any engine oil in his old Corolla for years.
He just said he forgot and the car still ran fine.
And then there was that time that the original Top Gear crew tried to destroy a Toyota Hilux.
They ran into a tree, drowned it, dropped a caravan on it hit it with a wrecking ball,
Burnt it, lifted it onto the top of a building which then got demolished, and it was still running after all of this.
According to statistics from the manufacturer as many as 80% of their car sold in the last 20 years are still on the road.
So it's clear that Toyotas are well-built, and they're a common sight in most places around the world.
But how did the company start and what's the story behind it?
How big are they, and what are some lesser-known facts about Toyota?
It's been a while since I've done a video on the How Big series, so let's take a look.
It all begins in the most humble way.
A son who found the inspiration to make his mother's life a little bit easier.
The story starts with Sakichi Toyoda who was born in 1867 in the city of Kosai.
Growing up Sakichi was inspired by a self-help book.
In the book was a description of an inventor who created motorized textile machinery.
While coming home one day after working for his father's carpentry business Toyoda had noticed
How hard his mother worked to weave textiles and in that moment he decided that a self-powered machine would make her life easier
Despite opposition from his father he decided to dedicate all of his time to the project
In 1898 he submitted his patent of the Toyoda power loom a type of textile machine
It used a one-horsepower oil motor and would be the first power loom in Japan
It quickly drew acclaim and attention for its ability to reliably produce high-quality cotton
After catching the eye of a prominent businessman in May of 1986 Toyota founded the Toyota loom company as a joint-stock venture
But it wasn't all smooth sailing in 1910. He was forced to resign after Japan had a major recession to blow off some steam
Sakichi took a trip to the US and Europe he was amazed at the level of technological advancement
But it was the automobile in particular that caught his attention
Inspired he decided to return to Japan and start a new company with his son Kiichiro
although the new company was named Toyoda spinning and weaving
Sakichi still had his mind on the automobile
In 1929 he sold the rights to his powered weaving machine for 1 million yen
And gave the money to his son only on the one condition that he would use the money to create Japan's own automobile
In the beginning Kiichiro was unsure, but after he had shipped to the US to observe the manufacturing process
He was convinced that it was possible
Around the same time the Japanese government was offering incentives for entrepreneurs to create a Japanese car Kiichiro took
This as a sign and began diversifying away from the textile industry and into the automotive industry
In 1932 two prototype cars were released
This fast adaptation to change proved to be a decision that would alter the course of history in
the following year the newly formed Toyoda automatic loom works
Dedicated all their efforts to produce cars the first production cars rolled out in
1935 and the division became its own company Toyota Motor Company in 1937
The aim of Toyoda was to be cheaper than the other cars imported by Ford or General Motors
The first cars were an instant success in Japan and Toyoda was on its way
The vehicles were originally sold under the brand name Toyoda with a D
This was after the name of the company's founder
But later of course this was changed to Toyota
The word Toyoda means fertile rice paddies not something suitable for a car manufacturer in hindsight
Continuing to the momentum in the late 1930s
Kiichiro set up a research lab his reasoning was very insightful. He stated quote
I want to gradually get rid of this attitude of taking the easiest path by taking someone else's hard work
We have relied on the west until now if we want to truly make Japan's industry independent. We have to cultivate that drive end quote
after expanding to multiple production plants in the 1930s the events of World War two in the
1940s almost destroyed the company causing Kiichiro to resign
The next few years will be a bumpy road, but in a strange twist
It was the Korean war that saved Toyota. the company was on the verge of bankruptcy
But in the first few months of the Korean War the United States ordered more than 5,000 vehicles from Toyota reviving the company
The 1950s some managers noticed that American workers were 9 times more productive as the Japanese
They discovered that the issue wasn't with the people
But the process throughout this decade the company focused their efforts on increasing productivity by streamlining their process to boost efficiency
With productivity beginning to increase in 1955 they shifted their sights to the global market
Upon a visit to the US the world's biggest market at the time a Toyota executive noted that there were many small European cars
Alongside the larger US ones. He saw a problem
They were too expensive. As a reaction to this Toyota, built an affordable car and pushed it into the US market
It was called the Toyopet Crown
The company's excitement was at a fever pitch this was going to be their big break, as it turns out
It was a complete disaster only
300 cars were sold
The main reason was that they had misunderstood American roads
For Japanese roads the Crown was fine
But when it was put on the US highways it would overheat lose power and drink way too much
Fuel Toyota had to go back to the drawing board
the result was Toyota's total quality control a
Complete process that included everything from the staff's level of enjoyment to a drive for constant improvement
After this they exported globally the export strategy was something called
Genchi Bunbutsu* it means go to the source and get the facts to make the right decision
after much research of external markets their cars began to succeed overseas
1966 would see the release of the toyota corolla one of the most popular cars of all time
[1966 Toyota Corolla Advert]
Man: "Hey, what's a Corolla?"
Woman: "A new car! "
Man: "A new low-price economy car!"
Woman: "From Toyota!"
Background Singing: "Corolla" A new car from Toyota!"
The oil crisis of the 1970s
Would further propel the need for smaller cars that were more efficient on fuel.
VO, Car salesman: "We were selling cars like crazy but by the next day - disaster the oil embargo came along and
"Couldn't sell big cars it also affect people that had bought big cars for bringing them back leave them on the lots of here"
"Don't want it - I won't be able to buy gas for it"
But when the American manufacturers decided to go towards smaller cars cost-cutting meant that their quality just couldn't match that of Toyota
From this time on Toyota was unstoppable with hits like the Camry in 1982
and the acclaimed Supra and MR2 and of course the Prius
In 1989 the company would move up market with their sub brand Lexus
Over the decades the lineup continued to grow now there's almost a hundred different models of Toyota cars globally
Today Toyota is one of the most recognizable brands their cars
They're everywhere you look on the road so how big are they in?
In 2015, Toyota was the number one car manufacturer but since then they've lost the top spot to VW
Toyota's production topped out at 10.2 million cars last year slightly less than VW's 10.3 million
Coming in at third was General Motors with 9.8 million cars produced so a three-way battle between Germany, Japan and the United States
How about that?
last year Toyota made
$248 billion in revenue and $20.3 billion in profit
They have a total of $419 billion dollars worth of assets
for comparison Volkswagen made $123 billion in revenue last year and $2.2 billion in profit General Motors
$166 billion in revenue and $9 billion in profit
Toyota is the biggest company in Japan by market capitalization, they're almost twice as big as the second largest company which is Softbank
Toyota owns, Daihatsu, Lexus
Hino
They have a 16.7% stake in Subaru a 6% stake in Isuzu most surprisingly up until
2016 Toyota had a 10% stake in Tesla, but they sold it as the companies began to become competitors
The Japanese firm also owns Kyohokai group, which has another
334 companies under its name they also own Red Entertainment, which is a video game developer in
Addition to cars Toyota is part owner of Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp, which will be creating a regional jet within the next year
the company has manufacturing plants in 27 countries
Including Russia, Turkey, Poland, Brazil, France, Canada, the UK and the US They have
349 thousand employees
Toyota is the 9th largest company on earth in terms of revenue they also take part in philanthropic efforts in education, conservation
safety and disaster relief for example the Toyota USA
Foundation supports education in science technology engineering and mathematics
the Food Bank of New York City uses Toyota to improve their processes and operations
Toyota has also been making humanoid robots as early as 2004 the company also has banking financing and Leasing branches
Okay so we're almost at the end of the video, but before we finish things off
Let's take a look at the six surprising facts about Toyota
[Robot: "Number 6"]
from
1966 Toyota has been manufacturing and selling a Corolla every 37 seconds on average, but if that's not enough now
They're selling one every 15 seconds.
44 million sales if you lined up all the Corollas sold back-to-back it will make a line around the earth five times
These Corollas have collectively driven 50 round trips between the Earth and Sun
the Corolla has been the best-selling nameplate since 1997
[Robot: "Number Five"]
The company has the highest number of global patents in the auto industry at over 1500
Annually they spend 9 billion US dollars in R&D and at times they've put as much as 1 million dollars every hour
Just into research
If you remember this goes back almost a hundred years to Kiichiro Toyoda's philosophy
Some fruits of this research is a new solid-state battery that could be in cars by 2020
And a hydrogen fuel cell car called the Toyota Mirai
Finally after 20 years of research. There is a hydrogen fuel cell car now
[Robot: "Number 4"]
Toyota is one of the most global brands while other big brands like Coca-Cola and McDonald's
May top out at being in about a hundred countries
Toyota is in over 170 countries
[Robot: "Number three"]
They're automation pioneers
the company has been using robots in their plants since the 1970's
and today Toyota uses their robots to help with medicinal and nursing support along with the assistance of those with limited mobility
[Robot: "Number Two"]
The Prius is the best-selling hybrid of all time since 1997 they've sold over 6 million cars
"Robot: Number one "
in 2017 fortune named Toyota as one of the world's most admired companies 3 years in a row
They've also won the winning title of number one vehicle company three years in a row
For those of you wondering Toyota automatic loom works still exists today
They're now called Toyota Industries Corporation and are the world's largest manufacturer of forklifts
Toyota are also still in the textile industry
Creating computerized automatic looms and sewing machines. It's pretty cool that the company's roots still exist today
So there you have it from watching his mother work too hard and having the idea to make her life easier
All the way to being one of the largest car manufacturers the world has ever seen
When you really think about it. There's no way of knowing where a simple spark of inspiration will take you
So next time you see a Toyota on the road have a bit of a think about that
anyway, thanks for watching this has been Dagogo you've been watching Cold Fusion if you've just stumbled across this channel feel free to
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Alright, so I'll catch you again soon for the next video cheers guys. Have a good one
English Subtitles by: Dylan "Robin" Harwood, Daniel "3ICE" Berezvai