What you need to know
- Toyota's president has welcomed the prospect of an Apple Car.
- However, Akio Toyoda warned that Apple should be ready for a decades-long commitment.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda says he welcomes the possibility of an Apple Car entering the market, but also had a clear warning for the company.
As WSJ reports:
President Akio Toyoda said he welcomed the possible entry of Apple Inc. into the car business but said the iPhone maker should be ready for a decadeslong commitment to its customers.
Speaking at the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Associations, Toyoda stated "anyone can make a car if they have the technical ability", but warned, "once they make a car, I hope they'll recognize they have to steel themselves for 40 years of responding to customers and to various changes."
Toyoda reportedly said he had "no problem" with Apple making cars, but that there were many issues a company had to deal with over the lifetime of a vehicle, including the prospect of scrapping it many years later:
"Technology companies entering the car industry means that the car industry has a future and choices for customers will widen. We welcome new entries, but I don't think it would be fair for those people who are newly entering to say, 'We don't need to steel ourselves for 40 years, and you other folks who have been around for many years, you do that.'"
The news follows reports that despite best efforts, Apple Car conversations with manufacturers have not gone well and that Apple is considering switching tactics and manufacturing its car like it does the iPhone, using a lesser-known manufacturing contractor rather than an established rival automaker like Kia or Hyundai.
