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  • Netflix’s message to shareholders: Focus on revenue and profit, not subscriber adds

    Netflix’s message to shareholders: Focus on revenue and profit, not subscriber adds

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    Netflix logo

    Mario Tama | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    Netflix has a message for investors: start focusing on revenue and profit, and stop obsessing about subscriber growth.

    Netflix made its argument with several pointed comments in its quarterly shareholder letter. The world’s largest streamer said it will stop forecasting paid subscriber adds. The company’s rationale behind the change is to get investors focused on revenue instead of customer growth.

    “We are increasingly focused on revenue as our primary top line metric,” Netflix wrote as it reported third quarter earnings Tuesday. “This will become particularly important heading into 2023 as we develop new revenue streams like advertising and paid sharing, where membership is just one component of our revenue growth.”

    Netflix will continue to provide guidance for revenue, operating income, operating margin and net income — traditional metrics of profitability — and it will still report subscriber adds each quarter. It just won’t forecast what’s to come.

    Part of the change is motivated by the increasingly wide array of revenue per user. A given subscriber could be paying $6.99 per month for Netflix’s new advertising tier, which debuts in the U.S. on November 3, or $19.99 per month for Netflix’s premium, no-ad service.

    “Focusing on subscribers in our early days was helpful, but now that we have such a wide range of price points and different partnerships all over the world, the economic impact of any given subscriber can be quite different,” Spencer Wang, Netflix’s vice president of finance, said during the company’s earnings call Tuesday. “That’s particularly true if you’re trying to compare our business with our streaming services.”

    Theoretically, Netflix’s advertising tier and coming crackdown on password sharing should reinvigorate subscriber growth. But Netflix, which gained 2.4 million subscribers in the third quarter on an “especially strong” content slate, led by “Stranger Things 4,” may see quarters with 10 million or more subscriber adds as a relic of the past.

    Focusing on Netflix’s strengths

    Instead of operating in a world filled with comparisons to a pandemic era fueled by surging growth, Netflix is attempting to steer investor focus to the fact that its streaming service actually makes money. Netflix directly addressed this point in the “Competition” section of its shareholder letter.

    “It’s hard to build a large and profitable streaming business – our best estimate is that all of these competitors are losing money on streaming, with aggregate annual direct operating losses this year alone that could be well in excess of $10 billion, compared with our +$5-$6 billion of annual operating profit,” Netflix wrote.

    In other words: Netflix is saying it has built a great streaming business, while Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Comcast‘s NBCUniversal, Paramount Global, and others want to build a great streaming business. Netflix acknowledged some of their competitors may get there, through consolidation and price hikes.

    This is a clear competitive advantage for Netflix, unlike subscriber adds, where Disney — earlier in its growth cycle, having launched Disney+ in 2019 — has the upper hand. Disney added 14.4 million Disney+ customers last quarter while Netflix lost 970,000.

    Netflix shares surged after hours, rising 14%. The company is once again adding subscribers after losing customers in the first and second quarters. Next quarter, Netflix said it will add 4.5 million more customers.

    But Netflix says we’re not supposed to be focused on that anymore. The question is whether investors will listen.

    Disclosure: Comcast’s NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.

    WATCH: Pleasant surprises in this market are most welcome, says Netflix investor

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  • Rupert Murdoch explores reuniting Fox and News Corp.

    Rupert Murdoch explores reuniting Fox and News Corp.

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    President Donald Trump (L) is embraced by Rupert Murdoch, Executive Chairman of News Corp, during a dinner to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea during WWII onboard the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum May 4, 2017 in New York.

    Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images

    Rupert Murdoch is exploring whether to put his media companies News Corp. and Fox Corp. back together, according to News Corp.

    News Corp., which owns Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones, said Friday that it had formed a special committee of board members to consider a possible deal. A merger isn’t certain, the company added in its announcement.

    Fox Corp., which was left over from the $71.3 billion Twenty-First Century Fox sale to Disney in 2019, owns right wing networks Fox News and Fox Business, which is a CNBC competitor.

    A combination would allow Murdoch to consolidate leadership in his media empire and cut costs. The discussions come as the audience shrinks for both print media and cable television, as readers and viewers increasingly get their news and entertainment from social media, online news and streaming services.

    The announcement will have no impact on the current operations of News Corp., CEO Robert Thomson told employees in a memo obtained by CNBC.

    “I would like to stress that the special committee has not made any determination at this time, and there can be no certainty that any transaction will result from this evaluation,” he wrote.

    Thomson also asked employees not to speculate about the potential deal or make any formal comments to media, shareholders or customers.

    The news also comes as Fox Corp. and Fox News are facing a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems. Dominion argues that Fox News and Fox Business made false claims that its voting machines rigged the results of the 2020 presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

    CNBC has reached out to Fox and News Corp. for comment. “Neither the Company nor the Special Committee intends to comment on or disclose further developments regarding the Special Committee’s work unless and until it deems further disclosure is appropriate or required,” News Corp. said in a statement on Friday.

    Murdoch, 91, split Fox and News Corp. in 2013. He is the chairman of Fox and the executive chairman of News Corp. His son Lachlan Murdoch is CEO of Fox and co-executive chairman of News Corp.

    The Murdoch family has a 42% voting stake in Fox and a 39% voting stake in News Corp., according to the Journal. Fox’s market value is about $17 billion, while News Corp.’s is about $9 billion, as of Friday’s market close. Class A shares of News Corp. rose more than 3% after hours, while Fox’s Class A shares barely moved.

    News Corp. also includes book publisher HarperCollins, scandal sheet the New York Post and news outlets in the U.K. and Murdoch’s native Australia. Fox’s holdings also include the Fox broadcast network, which airs “The Simpsons” and NFL games.

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  • Omicron BA.5 is declining in the U.S. as emerging variants gain ground, CDC data shows

    Omicron BA.5 is declining in the U.S. as emerging variants gain ground, CDC data shows

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    The U.S. faces at least seven different versions of Covid-19 omicron as the nation heads into winter when health officials are expecting another wave of viral infections.

    Although the omicron BA.5 variant remains dominant in the country, it is starting to lose some ground to other versions of the virus, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published on Friday.

    Omicron BA.5 has splintered into several new but related variants that include BQ.1, BQ.1.1 and BF.7. The U.K. Health Security Agency, in a report earlier this month, said these three variants are demonstrating a growth advantage over BA.5, which was the most contagious version to date.

    In the U.S., omicron BA.5 makes up about 68% of all new infections, down from about 80% at the beginning of October. BQ.1, BQ.1.1 and BF.7 are now causing about 17% of new infections combined, according to the CDC data.

    About 3% of new infections are attributable to BA.2.75. and BA.2.75.2, which are related to the omicron BA.2 variant that caused a bump in cases during the spring but was pushed out.

    Scientists at Peking University in China found that omicron BA.2.75.2 and BQ.1.1 were the most adept at evading immunity from prior BA.5 infection and several antibody drugs. The study, published earlier in October, has not been peer reviewed.

    Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House Covid response coordinator, said earlier this week that U.S. health officials are closely monitoring these variants because they are good at evading prior immunity.

    “The reason we’re tracking them is because they either have a lot more immune invasiveness or they render many of our treatments ineffective,” Jha said. “Those are the two major things that get our attention.”

    But Jha said the new omicron boosters that the U.S. started rolling out last month should provide better protection than the first-generation vaccines against these emerging variants. The boosters target BA.5 and the emerging variants are all omicron and most descend from BA.5.

    Jha called on all eligible Americans to get the new boosters by Halloween so they will have full protection for Thanksgiving when family holiday gatherings kick into full swing.

    But the scientists at Peking University said the immune evasiveness of variants like BA.2.75.2 and BQ.1.1 could mean that the BA.5 booster shots will not provide sufficiently broad protection.

    It’s unclear how much more effective the boosters will prove in the real world. The Food and Drug Administration authorized the shots without direct human data, relying instead on clinical trials from a similar shot that was developed against the original version of omicron, BA.1.

    Pfizer and BioNTech on Thursday published the first human data from their BA.5 shots. They triggered a significant boost to the immune system against omicron BA.5 in a lab study that looked at blood samples from adults ages 18 and older, the companies said.

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  • Risk of Covid death almost zero for people who are boosted and treated, White House Covid czar says

    Risk of Covid death almost zero for people who are boosted and treated, White House Covid czar says

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    People who stay up to date on their vaccines and receive treatments when they have breakthrough infections face almost no risk of dying from Covid-19, a top health official said on Tuesday.

    Dr. Ashish Jha, head of the White House Covid task force, said the U.S. has made major strides in fighting Covid since the early days of the pandemic when thousands of people were dying daily from the virus.

    “If you are up to date with your vaccines and if you get treated if you have a breakthrough infection, your risk of dying from Covid is now close to zero,” Jha told reporters at the White House.

    More than 300 people are still dying every day from Covid on average, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Jha told reporters last week that 70% of the people dying from the virus are 75 and older and don’t have the latest shots or aren’t getting treated as needed. He said this level of death is unacceptable given all the tools the U.S. now has at its disposal to manage the virus.

    Jha encouraged people who have Covid symptoms to get tested so they can get diagnosed and receive treatments such as the antiviral pill Paxlovid when needed.

    “Treatments which we have available today for free keep people out of the hospital, keep people out of the ICU, prevent the worst outcome at all,” Jha said.

    People older than 50 and those who are otherwise at elevated risk, such as people with weak immune systems or serious medical conditions, should be seriously considered for treatments, he said.

    The U.S. rolled out new booster shots that target the dominant omicron BA.5 subvariant in September. Although there’s no real-world data on their effectiveness yet, Jha said they should provide a much higher degree of protection based on what scientists know about how the human immune system works.

    Health officials are expecting Covid infections to increase in November through January as they have every fall and winter since the pandemic began, Jha said. But it’s difficult to predict whether the U.S. will face another major Covid surge because the virus continues to evolve, he added.

    “We are not helpless against these challenges. What happens in the weeks and months ahead will have a large impact on how the winter goes and really what happens this winter is largely up to us as the American people,” Jha said on Tuesday.

    He called on everyone ages 12 and older to get their new Covid booster shot by Halloween so they have protection in time for Thanksgiving when the holiday season gets into full swing. Everyone who is eligible should go out and get their annual flu shot as well because health officials are expecting a significant flu season for the first time since the pandemic began, he said.

    One caveat is people who recently caught Covid can wait three months to get their booster because infection also boosts your immunity, Jha said.

    “Don’t wait — get your new flu shot and your new Covid shot today,” Jha said. “If Americans did that we could save hundreds of lives each day this winter.”

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  • Nobel economics prize awarded to U.S.-based economists including Bernanke for work on financial crises

    Nobel economics prize awarded to U.S.-based economists including Bernanke for work on financial crises

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    Ben Bernanke, former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, speaks during the American Economic Association and Allied Social Science Association Annual Meeting on Friday, Jan. 4, 2019. Bernanke is one of three winners of the 2022 Nobel prize in economics.

    Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    U.S.-based economists Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig were awarded the Nobel prize in economic sciences for 2022 for their research on banks and financial crises.

    Bernanke was chairman of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014 and is now at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C. Diamond is a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and Dybvig is a professor at the Olin Business School of Washington University in St. Louis.

    The Nobel committee said their work in the early 1980s had “significantly improved our understanding of the role of banks in the economy, particularly during financial crises,” and in showing why it is vital to avoid bank collapses. They added this was “invaluable” during the 2008-09 financial crisis and the coronavirus pandemic.

    Bernanke’s analysis of the Great Depression in the 1930s showed how and why bank runs were a major reason the crisis was so long and severe. Diamond and Dybvig’s work, meanwhile, looked at the socially important role banks play in smoothing the potential conflict between savers wanting access to their money and the economy needing savings to be put into investments; and how governments can help prevent bank runs by providing deposit insurance and acting as a lender of last resort.

    The winners of the prize — officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel — receive 10 million Swedish krona ($883,000) each.

    The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences select the winners from a list of candidates recommended by the Economic Sciences Prize Committee. This makes its selection from names submitted by around 3,000 professors, previous winners and academy members by invitation. People cannot nominate themselves.

    In a press conference following the announcement, Diamond was asked whether he had any warning for banks, institutions and governments given current rising interest rates and predictions of an economic slowdown.

    Diamond said: “Financial crises, in the way that Phil Dybvig and I think about them, become worse when people start to lose faith in the stability of the system. And that is all related to basically how profitable they think the banking sector is, in addition to being stable.”

    “So in periods when things happen unexpectedly, like I think people are surprised how quickly nominal interest rates have gone up around the world, that can be something that sets off some fears in the system. We saw some of this in the United Kingdom in their liability-driven sector of the insurance market.”

    “So I guess the best advice is to be prepared for making sure that your part of the banking sector is both perceived to be healthy and to stay healthy and to respond in a measured and transparent way to changes in monetary policy.”

    Asked about whether he foresaw another financial crisis, he said the world was “much better prepared” than in 2008, and regulatory improvements had made the system less vulnerable.

    “The banking sector itself is in very solid shape, good net worth, good risk management,” he said. “The problem is that these vulnerabilities of the fear of runs and dislocations and crises can show up anywhere, not just commercial banks.”

    The insight he and Dybvig had tried to provide, he said, was that it is crucial to be able to issue short-term, liquid liabilities, like deposits or shares, which are more liquid than underlying assets. He again cited the insurance sector in the U.K., when he said the “mismatch” came when there were calls for more collateral from insurance companies. The Bank of England has been forced to intervene to reduce market turmoil and protect pension funds following a controversial government budget.

    Last year, the economics prize was split three ways. It went to David Card, for his work on labor economics; and Joshua D. Angrist and Guido W. Imbens for their contributions to the analysis of causal relationships.

    Unlike the five other Nobel prizes, which have been handed out since 1901 and were bestowed in the will of Swedish inventor, chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel, the economics award was established in 1969 by Sweden’s central bank in his honor. It is the last to be announced each year.

    The renowned Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, Russian human rights organization Memorial and the Ukrainian NGO Center for Civil Liberties.

    This year’s prize for physics went to Alain Aspect, John Francis Clauser and Anton Zeilinger, for discoveries in quantum mechanics. The Nobel committee said they had used “groundbreaking experiments” investigating particles in entangled states to begin a new era of quantum technology.

    The chemistry prize was split between Carolyn R. Bertozzi, for her work using click and bioorthogonal chemistry to map cells and develop more targeted cancer treatments; and Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless, who the committee said “laid the foundations of click chemistry,” which involves connecting biocompatible molecules.

    The medicine prize was awarded to Svante Paabo “for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.”

    The prize for literature went to French author Annie Ernaux.

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  • U.S. will screen people arriving from Uganda for Ebola as East African nation battles outbreak

    U.S. will screen people arriving from Uganda for Ebola as East African nation battles outbreak

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    The U.S. will rout and screen passengers for Ebola at five designated airports if they have traveled in Uganda within three weeks prior to their arrival, federal officials said on Thursday.

    Uganda, a nation in East Africa, is battling a deadly outbreak of Ebola with 63 confirmed and probable cases and 29 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. No cases of Ebola have been reported in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    The CDC is working closely with Uganda’s health ministry and the WHO to respond to the outbreak.

    The U.S. Embassy in Uganda, in a health alert Thursday, said passengers who have been in the East African nation within 21 days of their arrival in the U.S. will be routed to one of five airports: New York JFK, Newark, Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare or Washington Dulles.

    Passengers arriving from Uganda at those airports will undergo temperature checks and verification of their contact data, a federal health official said. Airlines will send passenger information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention so the agency can conduct health follow ups, the official said. Contact information will also be sent to state health departments so they can conduct follow ups locally.

    Uganda is battling an outbreak caused by a strain of Ebola called Sudan ebolavirus. The virus spreads through direct contact with body fluids of a person who has fallen ill with the virus or died from it, as well as infected animals and contaminated objects, according to CDC. Ebola does not spread through airborne transmission, the health agency said.

    People infected with ebolavirus are not contagious until symptoms appear, which can take anywhere from two to 21 days after contact with the virus, according to CDC. On average, it takes about 8 to 10 days for symptoms to appear.

    Symptoms include unexplained hemorrhaging, bleeding or bruising; fever; severe headache and muscle and joint pain; stomach pain, diarrhea and vomiting. Other symptoms include red eyes, skin rash and hiccups.

    There is no vaccine licensed by the Food and Drug Administration to protect against the Sudan ebolavirus strain. The FDA approved a vaccine to combat Zaire ebolavirus based on animal studies, but it’s not expected to protect against the Sudan strain, according to CDC. There is also no FDA approved treatment for Sudan ebolavirus.

    The CDC, in a health alert Thursday, said health-care providers should be on the alert for any patients suspected of having Ebola. Physicians and other clinicians should obtain a detailed travel history for any patients suspected of having the disease, particularly for people who have been to the regions in Uganda where there is an outbreak.

    This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

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  • Kim Kardashian pays over $1 million to settle SEC charges linked to a crypto promo on her Instagram

    Kim Kardashian pays over $1 million to settle SEC charges linked to a crypto promo on her Instagram

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    Reality TV star Kim Kardashian launched a private equity fund, Skky Partners, which she co-founded with Jay Sammons, a former partner at the investment firm Carlyle Group.

    Photo by James Devaney/GC Images via Getty Images

    Kim Kardashian’s crypto misadventure has landed her in hot water with federal regulators.

    The reality TV superstar and influencer has settled Securities and Exchange Commission charges that she failed to disclose a payment she received for touting a crypto asset on her Instagram feed, the agency announced Monday morning.

    “This case is a reminder that, when celebrities or influencers endorse investment opportunities, including crypto asset securities, it doesn’t mean that those investment products are right for all investors,” Gary Gensler, chairman of the SEC, said in a news release.

    Representatives for Kardashian didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Kardashian, who is reportedly worth $1.8 billion, agreed to pay $1.26 million to settle the charges over a promotion on Meta‘s Instagram for EthereumMax’s crypto asset, the SEC said. She will also cooperate with an ongoing investigation, and has agreed to not promote crypto securities for three years, the regulator added.

    However, Kardashian, who has built a media and lifestyle empire, neither admitted to nor denied the regulator’s findings, the SEC said.

    Kardashian has already felt regulatory heat over her EthereumMax promo, which she posted on Instagram in June of last year. She started the post by asking her millions of followers, “ARE YOU INTO CRYPTO??? THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE BUT SHARING WHAT MY FRIENDS JUST TOLD ME ABOUT THE ETHEREUM MAX TOKEN.”

    Investors sued her, former NBA star Paul Pierce and superstar boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. earlier this year over their promos for EthereumMax, accusing them of artificially inflating the value of the asset.

    The SEC on Monday said Kardashian failed to report that she was paid $250,000 to publish a post about EMAX tokens, a crypto asset offered by EthereumMax. The post, which featured the hashtag “#ad,” included a link to the EthereumMax website, which gives users instructions about how to buy the tokens, the regulator added.

    Her failure to disclose the payment was a violation of federal securities laws, the SEC said. She agreed to pay $260,000, which includes the payment she received, plus interest, in addition to the $1 million penalty, the agency added.

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  • Monkeypox eradication unlikely in the U.S. as virus could spread indefinitely, CDC says

    Monkeypox eradication unlikely in the U.S. as virus could spread indefinitely, CDC says

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    The monkeypox virus is unlikely to be eliminated from the U.S. in the near future, according to a report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week.

    The CDC, in a technical brief, said the outbreak is slowing as the availability of vaccines has increased, people have become more aware of how to avoid infection, and immunity has likely increased among gay and bisexual men, the group most impacted by the virus.

    But low-level transmission of the virus could continue indefinitely among men who have sex with other men, according to the report. The CDC said it does not have a projection of how many total people might get infected by the virus.

    The Biden administration declared a public health emergency in August in an effort to ramp up vaccines, testing, treatment and community outreach in an effort to eradicate the virus from the U.S.

    The U.S. is trying to contain the largest monkeypox outbreak in the world, with nearly 26,000 cases reported across all 50 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico, according to CDC data. At least two people have died from the disease in the U.S., according to the data.

    The global monkeypox outbreak, the largest in history, is highly unusual because the virus is circulating widely in countries where it is not normally found. Historically, monkeypox has circulated in remote parts of West and Central Africa. In that context, people normally caught the virus from animals. There was little spread between people.

    Monkeypox is now spreading widely between people, mostly through close contact during sex among gay and bisexual men. The disease is rarely fatal, but patients develop lesions resembling blisters in sensitive areas that are extremely painful. In some cases, the pain is so great people require hospitalization and in rare instances people with weak immune systems have died.

    The CDC, in its report, said the virus is still spreading primarily among men who have sex with men. But anyone can catch the virus through close contact with someone who is infected or with contaminated materials. Health authorities have confirmed 29 cases of children catching the virus to date, and 78 total pediatric cases are under investigation as of late September.

    Though 96% of patients are men, 408 women have caught the virus to date in the U.S. Four pregnant women and one who was breastfeeding have caught monkeypox.

    The CDC said the percentage of patients who identify as gay or bisexual men has declined over time, with 75% of people who provided recent sexual history reporting male-to-male contact.

    But a large number of cases are missing data on sexual history and more than 90% of infections are among males, according to CDC. The decline in the percentage of cases reporting male-to-male sexual contact is likely due to missing data rather than a change in how the virus is spreading, according to the public health agency.

    The CDC said the outbreak will likely remain concentrated among men who have sex with men over the long term, with infections continuing to decline over the coming weeks and dropping significantly over the next several months.

    More than 684,000 people have received the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine so far. Earlier this week, the CDC reported preliminary data indicating that the vaccine is providing at least some protection against infection. The vaccination campaign is primarily focused on gay and bisexual men.

    The outbreak could start accelerating again if the virus starts spreading widely among the U.S. population through heterosexual networks or contact that doesn’t involve sex, according to CDC. But there is no country in the current global outbreak that has found clear evidence of sustained spread of the virus outside sexual networks of gay and bisexual men, according to the CDC.

    The public health agency also warned that the virus could start spreading faster again among people if it becomes established in an animal population in the U.S. The CDC said it is unknown which animals in North America are most susceptible to infection.

    In Africa, the virus mostly spread from animals to people. If monkeypox becomes established in animals in the U.S., it would be very difficult to eradicate.

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  • Toyota CEO doubles down on EV strategy amid criticism it’s not moving fast enough

    Toyota CEO doubles down on EV strategy amid criticism it’s not moving fast enough

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    A Toyota bZ4X on display at the New York Auto Show, April 13, 2022.

    Scott Mlyn | CNBC

    LAS VEGAS – Toyota Motor is standing by its electric vehicle strategy, including hybrids like the Prius, following criticism by some investors and environmentalist groups that the company is transitioning too slowly to EVs.

    Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, who has built a corporate strategy around the idea that EVs aren’t the only solution for automakers to reach carbon neutrality, said Thursday the company will move forward with plans to offer an array of so-called electrified vehicles for the foreseeable future – ranging from hybrids and plug-ins to all-electric and hydrogen electric vehicles.

    “Everything is going to be up to the customers to decide,” he said through a translator during a small media roundtable, a day after addressing the company’s Toyota dealers at their annual conference in Las Vegas.

    Toyoda addressed the need to convince skeptics of the company’s strategy, including government officials focusing regulations on all-electric battery vehicles, saying the automaker will “present the hard facts” about consumer adoption and the entire environmental impact of producing EVs compared with hybrid electrified vehicles.

    Since the Prius launched in 1997, Toyota says it has sold more than 20 million electrified vehicles worldwide. The company says those sales have avoided 160 million tons of CO2 emissions, which is the equivalent to the impact of 5.5 million all-electric battery vehicles.

    Toyoda’s remarks echoed comments he made to thousands of Toyota dealers and employees on Wednesday, saying the company will play “with all the cards in the deck” and offer a wide-array of vehicles for all customers.

    Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

    “That’s our strategy and we’re sticking to it,” Toyoda, who has described himself as a “car guy or car nerd,” said in a recording of the remarks shown to reporters.

    Toyoda doubled down on company expectations that all-electric vehicle adoption will “take longer to become mainstream” than many think. He said it will be “difficult” to fulfill recent regulations that call for banning traditional vehicles with internal combustion engines by 2035, like California and New York have said they will adopt.

    Toyota executives, while increasing investments in all-electric vehicles, have argued such cars and trucks are one solution, not the solution, to meet tightening global emissions standards and achieve carbon neutrality. Toyota continues to invest in alternative solutions as well as hybrid vehicles such as the Prius, which combine EV technology with traditional internal combustion engines.

    The company has said its strategy is justified, as not all areas of the world will adopt EVs at the same pace due to the high cost of the vehicles as well as a lack of infrastructure.

    Toyota’s strategy has been criticized by environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, which has ranked the Japanese automaker at the bottom of its auto-industry decarbonization ranking the past two years.

    Toyota plans to invest roughly $70 billion in electrified vehicles, including $35 billion in all-electric battery technologies over the nine years. It plans to offer about 70 electrified models globally by 2025.

    Toyota plans to sell about 3.5 million all-electric vehicles annually by 2030, which would only be around a third of its current annual sales.

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