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 subscribe 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
This was a great watch, thanks. Is there any other similar Toyota stuff out there?