Toyota Motors President Akio Toyoda (R) holds the key of a Tesla Roadstar (front) handed to him by... [+]
Toyota's second quarter earnings were something any of the Detroit auto companies could envy. In fact, it earned almost a billion dollars more than General Motors, Ford and Chrysler combined between April and June.
Toyota said today it earned $3.76 billion in the quarter, a 99.4 percent increase from its tiny net income a year ago. It's also increasing its sales forecast for the year, to 9.76 million vehicles. That's nearly 3 million vehicles better than the low of 7 million it hit in 2009, when Toyota was battered by the global recession as well as its recall woes.
By comparison, GM earned $1.5 billion in the same quarter, down 40 percent from last year. Ford earned $1 billion, down more than half from 2012. Chrysler's net income rose to $436 billion in this year's second quarter, up 141 percent from a year ago.
Toyota's strong quarter is a sharp contrast to the problems it faced a year ago, when production in Japan was snarled by the tsunami and earthquake. Company officials are not getting ahead of themselves, though. The automaker is not changing its full-year profit outlook, because of economic uncertainties in Europe and elsewhere.
Toyota said its sales improved in every part of the world, even Europe, where its operations are vastly smaller than those of GM and Ford. That means, however, that Toyota has escaped the big hit to earnings that both its American rivals are encountering there.
Toyota sales boomed in Japan, where the government has offered incentives for consumers to purchase environmentally friendly cars. And, it saw a jump in the United States, due to the newest version of the Camry sedan and expanded sales by cars bearing the Prius nameplate. Like other carmakers, Toyota is being cautious about China, where automakers are seeing inventories build up as the market stalls.
The numbers, however, reveal that Toyota has firmly rebounded from the crisis that enveloped its CEO, Akio Toyoda, when he took control. Now, it's up to Toyota to prove it will be able to manage its newfound success in the same determined way that it got through its setbacks.
