Toyota Has Too Many Cars, And Its Own CEO Knows It
Toyota sold over 2.5 million vehicles in the US alone in 2025, up 8 percent from the year before. Globally, it retained the title of world’s largest automaker for the sixth consecutive year. On paper, that’s a company firing on all cylinders. But Kenta Kon, who took over as CEO in April, isn’t entirely satisfied with the view from the top. After touring Toyota’s R&D facilities, he noticed something unsettling. Engineers are being pulled in too many directions across a catalogue that has quietly grown unwieldy.
Toyota
According to Automotive News, his diagnosis was direct: “If you go to a development division, you see issues such as an increasing number of different specifications and variants being created, which in turn is driving up costs. If there are areas within those activities that aren’t truly value-adding work, or where work isn’t being done efficiently, then we need to take a closer look at them.” In other words, Toyota, with a lineup of 24 models in the US (not counting drivetrain variants), has too many cars, and making them is getting expensive.
Who’s Carrying the Weight
Look at the US numbers and the picture becomes clear. The RAV4 (479,000 units), Camry (316,000), and Tacoma (274,000) are the undisputable pillars. The Corolla, Tundra, Grand Highlander, and Sienna all pull respectable volumes, too. These are the cars doing the heavy lifting, the ones justifying the existence of everything else in the lineup.
Toyota
Then there’s the other end of the spectrum. The hydrogen-powered Mirai sold just 210 units in all of 2025, down nearly 58 percent from the year before. The Venza, once a reasonable niche offering, fell off a cliff with a staggering 98 percent sales drop to just 707 units, leading to its discontinuation. The Crown, Toyota’s bold reinterpretation of the sedan, managed just 12,309 sales after moving nearly 20,000 the previous year. The bZ SUV also fell 16 percent in 2025, though the refreshed model has staged a significant sales comeback in 2026 to be one of Toyota’s bestsellers.
Toyota
What Gets Cut, And What Survives
Kon hasn’t named any victims yet, and a new CEO picking battles carefully is understandable. But the numbers tell their own story. The Mirai looks increasingly difficult to justify as a volume product, even if Toyota remains committed to hydrogen technology. The GR86, a genuine enthusiast’s car, sold under 10,000 units. But that’s almost part of the deal with sports cars, and cutting it would earn Toyota more bad press than savings.
The likelier path involves reducing variants and trim levels rather than wholesale axing of nameplates. Fewer configurations mean leaner development costs, simpler production, and engineers who can actually focus. Toyota built its reputation on doing a few things exceptionally well. The challenge for Kon is getting back to that, without dismantling everything that came after.
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