Toyota Motor is launching a strategic initiative to integrate robotics into its manufacturing processes to enhance competitiveness against Chinese automakers. The company plans to invest $6.4 billion annually to deploy 400,000 robots across its facilities and supply chain.
The company has established a dedicated robotics team overseen by its production director. In July, its subsidiary Walden Robotics raised $300 million at a valuation of $1.1 billion, with its general-purpose robots already operating in North American plants.
Goldman Sachs analysts project that Toyota could capture 3% to 8% of the global humanoid robot market by 2035, potentially producing between 190,000 and 540,000 units annually. The company is leveraging its proprietary behavioral models to train robots on assembly tasks.
A new assembly plant in Nagoya, scheduled for the early 2030s, will serve as a key site for this automation push. Toyota is also developing the 50-kilogram Eley robot, which utilizes fundamental models to learn fine motor skills by observing human workers.
