Toyota president criticises Tesla’s production capabilities as car maker’s tequila sells out

The president of one of the world’s biggest automotive companies has taken a rare shot at Elon Musk’s electric vehicle brand.

The president of Toyota has taken a swipe at Elon Musk and Tesla after it lost the throne of most valuable car maker to the electric vehicle company.

Toyota’s president Akio Toyoda, 64, made some unusually direct comments about a competitor at an online earnings briefing on Friday where he said Tesla had a “recipe” but his company has a “real kitchen and a real chef”, according to Bloomberg.

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Toyota president Akio Toyoda at a press conference in 2017.

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Mr Toyoda, the grandson of company founder Kiichiro Toyoda, said his company’s varied and deep vehicle offerings would help the company in the future by offering something for everyone, and while Tesla is now considered more valuable, Toyota makes and sells many more vehicles.

“We are losing when it comes to the share price, but when it comes to products, we have a full menu that will be chosen by customers,” Mr Toyoda said.

“Tesla says that their recipe will be the standard in the future, but what Toyota has is a real kitchen and a real chef.

“They aren’t really making something that’s real, people are just buying the recipe. We have the kitchen and chef, and we make real food,” he added.

Tesla sold around 367,000 vehicles last year. Toyota sold more than 10 million.

Tesla co-founder Elon Musk said his company should be selling a few million cars every year by 2025.

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Elon Musk at the site of a future Tesla Gigafactory in Berlin. Toyota’s president has likened Tesla’s highly valued but low producing manufacturing operations as being a recipe in need of a kitchen and a chef. Picture: Maja Hitij/Getty Images.

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Toyota reportedly hopes to sell around half a million EVs that year, but will also have other no or low emission vehicles like plug-in hybrids and hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Tesla has a higher stock market valuation because of investors banking on it leading the transition to electrified transport, while other manufacturers like German giant Volkswagen are now trying to play catch up.

Tesla and its eccentric co-founder also allow for other branding opportunities that are usually restricted to exotic manufacturers like Porsche and Ferrari.

Its latest branding exercise might not be the wisest move for a vehicle manufacturer, however.

Tesla recently started selling (and quickly sold out of) its own line of tequila, moving bottles priced at $US250 a pop ($A343).

A bottle of Tesla tequila.

The tequila is thought to stem from an April Fool’s joke Mr Musk made on Twitter in 2018.

While much hand-wringing occurred over the company’s financial future at the time, Mr Musk joked online that the company had gone bankrupt (he would later reveal the company came within a month of closing up shop as it attempted to ramp up production).

“Despite intense efforts to raise money, including a last-ditch mass sale of Easter eggs, we are sad to report that Tesla has gone completely and totally bankrupt. So bankrupt, you can’t believe it,” Mr Musk joked.

“Elon was found passed out against a Tesla Model 3, surrounded by “Teslaquilla” bottles, the tracks of dried tears still visible on his cheeks,” he tagged.

Elon was found passed out against a Tesla Model 3, surrounded by "Teslaquilla" bottles, the tracks of dried tears still visible on his cheeks.

This is not a forward-looking statement, because, obviously, what's the point?

Happy New Month! pic.twitter.com/YcouvFz6Y1

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 1, 2018

Many of Mr Musk’s Twitter jokes later eventuate into real products (while some of his other attempts at humour have landed him girlfriends).

In recent months the company also offered “S3XY” red satin shorts on its website, which quickly sold out.

Tesla's ‘S3XY’ red satin shorts.

The rear-end emblazoning on the shorts refers to the company’s vehicles: The Model S, Model 3, Model X and Model Y.

The Tesla tequila sold out quickly and has already appeared on eBay commanding much higher price tags, mostly for empty bottles.

The empty bottles are selling for high prices on eBay.