Toyota is considering a significant investment in factory automation, potentially allocating ¥1 trillion, or approximately $6.4 billion, annually starting in 2028. This internal projection, shared during an investor briefing in Brussels, outlines a plan to deploy around 400,000 robots across the company's own facilities, group plants, and major supplier sites.
The proposed fleet of 400,000 units includes both humanoid and non-humanoid machines, as well as replacements for aging equipment. According to industry reports, this figure comprises roughly 150,000 robots for Toyota and its group plants, with the remaining 250,000 units designated for partner and supplier locations. The company has not yet committed to this specific spending level.
The automation strategy aims to integrate robots alongside skilled workers known as takumi. The company intends for robots to perform repetitive or physically demanding tasks, while human employees retain responsibility for judgment-based decisions. This approach is designed to maintain production consistency and quality control across global manufacturing operations.
Toyota Research Institute is also developing a wheeled humanoid platform called ELEY, which utilizes Large Behavior Models to learn tasks from human demonstrations. The broader automation initiative is intended to allow production lines to switch between different vehicle variants more efficiently, helping the company manage manufacturing complexity without sacrificing output speed.
