Toyota bets on future of taxis with app investment

tokyo — Toyota Motor Corp. is doubling down on taxis. Seeking a bigger role in defining the future of connected mobility, Asia’s biggest automaker is investing an additional ¥7.5 billion ($68.6 million) into Japan Taxi, a cab-hailing app run by Ichiro Kawanabe, a taxi industry insider. They will collaborate on data collection and connected taxi terminals, the companies said in a statement Thursday.

Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s president, has big ambitions for the automaker and its role in the future

Now that Toyota has invested in Japan Taxi, the issue to look at is Uber’s expansion and strategy in Japan Seiji Sugiura, Analyst, Tokai Tokyo Research Center

of transport. He has said that cloud computing and data will disrupt and present opportunities for new revenue amid a once-in-a-century shift toward connected, autonomous and electrified vehicles. Toyoda is aiming to redefine the 80-year-old car manufacturer as a mobility services provider. “The question is what does Toyota think about ride-sharing,” said Seiji Sugiura, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Center in Tokyo. “Now that Toyota has invested in Japan Taxi, the issue to look at is Uber’s expansion and strategy in Japan.”

This is what’s intriguing: Toyota is also an Uber backer. The carmaker made a strategic investment in Uber for an undisclosed amount in 2016 as part of a collaboration into ride-sharing technology. Toyota’s previous investment in Japan Taxi was made last year, for ¥500 million through its Mirai Creation Fund, which is also backed by asset management firm Sparx Group Co. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.

Uber hasn’t made much headway in Japan, accounting for less than 1 per cent of monthly rides in Tokyo. Even so, the ride-hailing giant says it will expand in Japan, Singapore and other parts of Asia, according to Brooks Entwistle, head of the ride-hailing company’s business in the region. At the same time, Kawanabe, known as the ‘Taxi Prince,’ wants to make sure that Uber doesn’t encroach on Japan’s ¥1.72 trillion taxi industry. — Bloomberg