Toyoda Gosei to focus more on safety products for long-term growth

Tokyo – Toyoda Gosei (TG) has unveiled its business plan 2030, which places safety, comfort and decarbonisation at the centre of the group's development efforts going forward.

TG aims to deliver Yen100 billion (€633 million) in operating profit and sales of Yen1,200 billion by 2030, with an operating profit ratio of 8%, said its 9 Aug strategy statement.

The figures compare against an operating profit of Yen35 billion and sales of Yen952 billion reported in its fiscal year to 31 March 2023.

Increased emphasis on safety, while also protecting the environment, will stem largely from focus on products for battery electric vehicles (BEVs), said the TG statement. 

The strategy will see the group “reallocate resources from our fuel-related components and weatherstrip products to other ventures,” stated president, CEO Katsumi Saito.

“In doing so, we are contemplating reshaping our business portfolio in this direction”, added Saito, who took the helm at TG in June.

Much of the shift to safety-oriented technologies will be carried out under “deepening relationship” with Ashimori Industry – an Osaka, Japan-based supplier of automotive safety and functional products.

“We are now set to jointly develop seat belts and our airbags as a combined offering,” explained Saito.

The process, said the TG boss, will include collaboration to enhance efficiency in manufacturing and sales, amongst other functions.

Looking ahead, Saito said he expected posture and other requirements of passengers to change as people seek greater relaxation during travel.

This, he said, will 'transform' the provision of safety for the passengers. 

“We believe this is a potential game-changing moment. We’re keen on developing integrated technologies, like the lap airbag,” he said.

“While the airbag industry is currently dominated by giants like Autoliv Inc. and ZF, we possess a strong determination to transform this landscape,” he concluded.

In terms of BEV growth, the TG boss said the group aims to target North America, India as well as China.

In these three regions, Saito noted a ‘lagging in the BEV segment’ by Japanese OEMs – TG’s primary customers.

“Given this, our intent is to expand our business by collaborating with leading Chinese-owned OEMs and local manufacturers like TATA in India,” he added.

By doing business with these OEMs, Saito said the group aims to “refine our product-development approach, treating it as an external competition.”

Ultimately, TG hopes to “reintroduce our enhanced offerings” to Japanese OEMs to raise their competitive edge.