Toyota Chief’s Warning to Apple: The Car Business Isn’t Easy

  • Apple plotting to enter the car market with autonomous EV
  • Toyoda cautions of need to be responsible for whole life cycle
Photographer: Toru Hanai/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda offered a warning to Apple Inc., which is plotting a foray into the auto industry: There’s more to the business of selling cars than just having the technology to produce them.

The automotive industry welcomes new entrants, “but after making a vehicle, I’d like them to be prepared to deal with customers and various changes for some 40 years,” Toyoda said at a news conference held Thursday by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, where he is the chairman.