Toyota expects 34.9% drop in FY 2025 net profit amid U.S. tariff woes

Its operating profit is projected at 3.8 trillion yen, down 20.8 percent from fiscal 2024, on estimated record sales of 48.5 trillion yen, up 1.0 percent, the Japanese automaker said.

For the business year ended March, Toyota posted a net profit of 4.77 trillion yen, down 3.6 percent from a year earlier, on record sales of 48.04 trillion yen, up 6.5 percent.

The latest earnings report from the world's largest automaker by volume comes amid growing concern over Trump's steep import taxes, including an additional 25 percent levy imposed since early April on all automobiles manufactured outside the United States.

As the United States remains Toyota's largest market, accounting for roughly 20 percent of its global vehicle sales, the tariffs could significantly affect the company's performance.

Toyota said U.S. trade policies are projected to reduce its operating profit by 180 billion yen, adding it tentatively priced in their impact for two months through May.

"It is still extremely difficult to forecast the outlook, as the details of the tariffs remain fluid," Toyota President Koji Sato said at a press conference.

When asked how Toyota would respond if the trade policies remain in place over the long term, Sato only said the company will continue to develop and manufacture products tailored to local customers, without providing further details.

Chief Financial Officer Yoichi Miyazaki said the Japanese company has no immediate plans to pass heftier levies onto customers.

"We believe that prices should be determined by customers...and we have raised prices of items in high demand," Miyazaki said, adding, "We will make an appropriate response at the right time."

For fiscal 2025, the yen's appreciation is estimated to slash Toyota's operating profit by 745 billion yen.

As a weaker yen inflates overseas profits when repatriated, Toyota and other Japanese exporters benefited from the currency's fall in recent years.

The company's earnings outlook is based on an exchange rate assumption of 145 yen to the U.S. dollar and 160 yen to the euro, compared with 153 yen and 164 yen, respectively, the previous year.

Every 1 yen rise against the dollar is estimated to cut Toyota's operating profit by some 50 billion yen a year.

The Toyota group's global vehicle sales, including those of truck maker Hino Motors Ltd. and compact car subsidiary Daihatsu Motor Co., edged down 0.7 percent in fiscal 2024 to 11.01 million units following a certification scandal that briefly suspended production of several models.

But the figure still exceeded its projection of 10.85 million units, due partly to strong demand for hybrid cars.

For the current business year, the automaker group plans to sell 11.2 million units worldwide, up 1.7 percent, Toyota said.

Earlier it was reported that Toyota had remained the world's top automaker in 2024.