Fierce competition in the automotive world, with Chinese brands aggressively trying to expand to the rest of the world, is forcing legacy brands to reconsider their strategies. Toyota’s new CEO, Kenta Kon, thinks he has part of the answer: fewer parts.
Kon, who replaced Koji Sato earlier this year, wants to lower production costs to improve Toyota’s profitability without affecting customers.
His predecessor already made a plea for more cooperation between Japanese brands, sharing components beyond Toyota’s existing group partners Daihatsu and Subaru. But Kon is taking a page out of the book of Chinese manufacturers and non-traditional brands like Tesla.
Simplify production
Kon told Autonews that he wants to drastically reduce the number of parts Toyota uses. Though, the Toyota CEO doesn’t want to go as far as the “as long as it’s black”-myth around the Ford Model T.
He doesn’t want to limit choice, but rather reduce the number of parts invisible to customers or that are irrelevant to them.
One example is the different type of fabrics used for the sides and rear parts of car seats, which add complexity but don’t have much impact on the customer.
Automotive News also cites a reduction of side mirror parts by 50%, while the variation in doorhandles for the RAV4 there is said to have been cut by a third.
Chinese brands lead the way
This approach is something Chinese manufacturers have been adopting much earlier, with more standardisation between models and versions. And it is Chinese competition that forces Toyota to reconsider everything.
Fewer parts and higher volumes of single types of parts instead of more variation, makes for lower production costs. And this in turn means Toyota will have to produce fewer cars to break even.
When you look at it this way, Toyota might be bracing for when Chinese brands take away some of its market share.
In 2025 Toyota remained the worldwide leader with 11.3 million vehicles sold (10% more than in 2024). But sales of Chinese companies like BYD and Geely have gone up, with an advantage over Toyota in the EV segment.
Suppliers already on track
In practice, major Toyota supplier Toyota Boshoku has already started simplifying its parts range to almost double the company’s profit margin by 2030. Its RPT33-plan plans for a 33 percent reduction of the number of parts.
One of the best examples is the production of Toyota Boshoku’s headrests, which now have 76% fewer components. The next generation of seat frames use a simplified design, making them 20% thinner than the competition, and making it possible to produce more in-house.
Gigacasting?
Toyota itself is also working on a ‘gigacasting’ type of production method to reduce the number of parts, especially for more upscale models.
Gigacasting is used extensively by Tesla, with brands like Volvo and others following its lead. The technology consists of making large parts of cars out of one piece of material, rather than assembling different small parts to come to the same structure.
Toyota was set to launch the Lexus LF-ZC, with gigacasting as one of the innovative technological feats. The model was ultimately axed because of slow EV sales, but that is not the end of gigacasting for the brand.
First in China
The production of a new model for the Chinese market is planned for the end of 2027, using the technologies announced for the Lexus model and becoming the first Toyota group model using gigacasting.
Others companies, like Stellantis, seem to be less keen on the process in the short term. And while gigacasting, although expensive to set up, reduces component cost, it might ultimately cost consumers more. In case of damage, these large parts are more difficult to repair.
