Toyota Eyes Neta Deal

What’s Cooking?

So, here’s the deal: Toyota, which has always been a bit slow on the electric vehicle (EV) uptake, is now getting serious about it, especially in China. Rumor has it they’re eyeing a possible buyout of Neta, a smaller Chinese EV brand. Now, this might be big news because Neta’s been having a rough year. They sold 64,500 cars last year, but as of January 2025, they’ve only managed to move about 110 units – not exactly stellar numbers.

The Neta Story

Neta, the electric vehicle arm run by Hozon New Energy Auto, launched in 2014, has brought some slick rides to the table, like the GT sports car and the S sedan. However, things haven’t been great financially. They had to stop production and lay off a chunk of their workforce after things took a nosedive around mid-2024.

Financial Rollercoaster

Early this year, there was chatter about Neta inking some deal that could have landed them between $552 million to $621 million in funding. This could have saved them, but because things didn’t get back to full production, the deal never came through. As of early 2025, Neta’s valuation sits at around $828 million, making it a possible acquisition target for a giant like Toyota.

Toyota’s Stance

Uh-oh, not so fast! While rumors circulate that Toyota might be interested in this floundering EV brand, Xu Yiming, who’s in charge of Toyota’s brand communications in China, has shut down these whispers for now. Still, given Toyota’s war chest and its increasing focus on EVs, especially in the competitive Chinese market, acquiring Neta might just make sense, strategically.

Driving Dynamics

Should Toyota snag Neta, they’d get more than just assets and tech. They’d have a foot deeper in the Chinese market, which is fiercely competitive but ripe for growth. The Neta S and its sporty siblings may not match up, performance-wise, to some of the American EVs we know but have unique appeal with their design and pricing strategy. Picture them as less of a Tesla Model S and more of a charismatic underdog on a budget.

Whether or not the acquisition takes place, it’s clear that Toyota is making moves to shift gears and get serious about the EV race. Time will tell what comes next, but one thing’s for sure: if they make the right moves, they could be Goldilocks finding the porridge that’s “just right” in the evolving landscape of electric vehicles.