Starting in 2028, Toyota Motor plans to invest roughly 1 trillion yen ($6.4 billion) per year into high-tech automation and robotics. The initiative is designed to counter Japan's shrinking, ageing labour pool while overhauling ageing manufacturing infrastructure throughout its supplier network.
Squeezed by factory obsolescence and hiring crunches, the auto industry is leaning heavily into robotics. Beyond lowering production overhead, market watchers note that this automation push could position automakers to commercialise their proprietary tech well outside traditional carmaking.
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The projected investment spans Toyota, its group affiliates, and primary suppliers. While Toyota stopped short of confirming a definite rollout or timeline, it informed investors that automating factories across these companies would require roughly 400,000 robots, as reported by CNBC.
This figure accounts for both new installations and replacements of existing machines, covering humanoid and non-humanoid robots alike.
In talks with investors earlier this month, the company outlined an investment push into factory automation, focusing on robotics, automated logistics, and next-generation human-robot workflows.
The proposed deal, pitched to investors earlier this month, earmarks capital for factory-floor automation, spanning industrial robotics, automated transit systems, and collaborative human-robot operations.
Toyota's pivot toward robotics could help investors look past the factory floor and recognise its long-term potential outside the automotive sector, according to a recent Bernstein note.
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