Toyota’s battle to catch up with Tesla in a new era of electric vehicles is playing out in one of the oldest parts of the carmaking business: the assembly line.
The Japanese carmaker has been claiming technology breakthroughs in solid-state batteries and last week placed an $8bn bet on the US electric vehicle market as it tries to persuade investors of its ability to compete with Tesla.
But Toyota is also being challenged by Tesla on the factory floor, where the world’s most valuable carmaker is pioneering a fundamental change to the way cars are made. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk argues that legacy assembly processes need to be changed for battery-powered vehicles, simplifying and speeding up carmaking with fewer suppliers and vehicle models.