Toyota CEO Warns 484 Suppliers: Adapt or Perish

On March 31, Toyota Motor CEO Koji Sato issued an urgent warning to 484 core suppliers, stating the company faces an "existential threat." Despite reporting a net profit of as much as $57 billion (approximately RMB 57 billion) in the most recent quarter, Sato stressed that without accelerating its transformation to meet the waves of electrification and intelligent mobility, the world’s top-selling automaker may struggle to survive. He called on the entire supply chain—upstream and downstream—to jointly drive fundamental change to secure future competitiveness. This move underscores the deep anxiety felt by traditional automotive giants amid sweeping industry transformation.