Toyota’s EV struggle
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 11 January 2023
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
UK staffers fired by Twitter claim their dismissals were conducted unlawfully, BioNTech has agreed to buy UK artificial intelligence start-up InstaDeep, and Toyota is confronting an “unprecedented” challenge to revive its electric vehicle sales. Plus, the FT’s Tom Wilson chats about the challenges facing Shell’s new chief executive, Wael Sawan.
Mentioned in this podcast:
Twitter hit with legal challenge from former UK staff
Toyota leasing unit warns of ‘unprecedented’ challenge to boost EV sales
BioNTech buys UK AI start-up InstaDeep in £562mn deal
Wael Sawan, the Shell lifer taking helm to navigate energy transition
Virgin Orbit shares sink after rocket ‘anomaly’
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The FT News Briefing is produced by Fiona Symon, Sonja Hutson and Marc Filippino. The show’s editor is Jess Smith. Additional help by Peter Barber, Michael Lello, David da Silva and Gavin Kallmann. Topher Forhecz is the FT’s executive producer. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. The show’s theme song is by Metaphor Music.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The FT News Briefing is supported by Equinole, the UK's energy partner. |
| 0:06.3 | Learn more at equinole.co.uk |
| 0:10.0 | Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Wednesday, January 11th, |
| 0:13.6 | and this is your FT News Briefing. |
| 0:18.4 | Twitter faces more legal trouble this time from former workers in the UK. |
| 0:23.3 | Toyota is struggling with electric vehicle sales and one of the world's biggest oil companies |
| 0:28.9 | has a new leader. We'll talk about what Shell CEO, while so on, will do with his company's |
| 0:34.3 | record profits. Does he keep returning it to shareholders? Or does he suddenly decide to |
| 0:39.9 | dive in at a much larger chunk of that cash towards the newer parts of the business? |
| 0:45.2 | I'm Mark Filipino and here's the news you need to start your day. |
| 0:59.9 | Twitter has another lawsuit on its hands. Several dozen former workers in the UK say their |
| 1:05.8 | dismissals were conducted illegally, and they say the social media company did not give them |
| 1:11.4 | the severance their owed. Twitter didn't respond to an FT request for comment. |
| 1:16.0 | In total, 180 UK staffers were fired as part of mass layoffs in November, |
| 1:22.0 | right after Elon Musk bought the company. In the US, Twitter faces at least |
| 1:26.8 | 200 legal complaints and four-class action lawsuits from laid-off workers. |
| 1:37.5 | Toyota is struggling to sell electric vehicles. The company botched the rollout of its first EV |
| 1:43.1 | model. The BZ-4X had to be recalled within weeks of its launch last year, |
| 1:49.0 | and sales have been lackluster ever since. Our Tokyo correspondent Erie Segura said, |
| 1:54.5 | Toyota had planned to deliver 5,000 in Japan during the first year. |
| 1:59.9 | That carmaker is delivering the BZ-4X in Japan exclusively through the leasing subsidiary, |
| 2:06.2 | but the head of that subsidiary told us in an interview that he would not meet the sales target |
... |
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