Japanese automaker Toyota is “exploring rockets,” says chairman Akio Toyoda Announced on stage at CES 2025While hinting at the idea of moving people through space.
Toyoda did not elaborate on what he meant. But he showed a rendering of a rocket stage designed by Interstellar Technologies, a private Japanese spaceflight company that is working on a small launch vehicle designed to put satellites into space.
Toyoda was in the middle of explaining how he sees his company's myriad technologies as “Kakezan's innovation” or “innovation by quality.”
“When you work together what's possible, the sky's the limit,” he said. After a dramatic pause, he continued: “And speaking of the sky, we're also exploring rockets. Because the future of mobility shouldn't be limited to just Earth, or just a car company” — a possible dig at Tesla, whose CEO Elon Musk is the founder of SpaceX. and the CEO.
Spaceflight is a wild idea to tease at the end of a press conference, although there is some precedent for such a move. sony Surprise-announced it's working on an electric car at CES five years ago and barely got more than a few minutes of stage time.
Toyota, meanwhile, has been criticized over the years for its overly cautious stance on electric vehicle development. Now that it doesn't look like a prescient move as major automakers scale back their ambitious plans for electrification, Toyota simply has its eye on a different prize — space.