Toyota’s Chief Akio Toyoda and Tesla’s Chief Elon Musk have one thing in common: they do not limit their ambitions to just car production. Now, Toyota is entering the rocket production industry – albeit on a smaller scale.
Toyota’s Chairman Akio Toyoda announces entry into rocket development at the American electronics show CES.
Toyota’s Chief Akio Toyoda challenges Tesla’s Chief Elon Musk in space. In a speech at the American electronics show CES about Toyota’s Smart City “Woven City,” he casually announced the entry into the development of space rockets and satellite logistics – a field that Musk’s company SpaceX has dominated so far.
“Speaking of the sky,” Toyoda said, “we are also researching rockets because the future of mobility should not be limited to Earth – or to a single car manufacturer!” It was obviously aimed at Elon Musk, who not only leads Tesla but also SpaceX. A press release then provided the details.
Toyota’s technology venture, Woven by Toyota, will invest 7 billion yen (41 million Swiss francs) in the eleven-year-old Japanese rocket startup, Interstellar Technologies. The company is developing small rockets for low Earth orbit satellites.
Toyota is building a partnership that began in 2020 with the dispatch of engineers, into an alliance. The goal is similar to the investment made by the German sports car manufacturer Porsche in Isar Aerospace in 2021: Automakers hope to be part of the booming space mobility segment, currently dominated by the US and China.
Japan aims to become a player in commercial spaceflight
The global demand for small satellites has increased twentyfold between 2016 and 2023. Most of them have been launched into space by SpaceX, including Musk’s satellite communication system, Starlink. Besides many other players, the Japanese government and industry also have serious ambitions to enter this industry.
Japan has been a niche player so far. In 2023, only three space rockets made in Japan were launched. However, the Japanese government has set a goal to achieve around thirty launches per year by the early 2030s through the space agency Jaxa and private companies.
The Japanese industry is already active. The company Ispace aims to establish itself as a leading logistics company for space and moon flights. In 2023, their most prestigious project, the first moon landing by a private company, ended with a hard landing on the moon’s surface. But Ispace is not deterred.
On January 15, Ispace launched its second attempt to land on the moon – aboard a Falcon-9 rocket from SpaceX. The landing on the lunar surface is scheduled for the end of March. Japanese insurers are already working on insurance policies for space transportation. However, rockets made in Japan are still lacking.
Jaxa is trying to make its large space rockets competitive. But the most prominent private project is Interstellar Technologies. The company, founded by former internet billionaire Takafumi Horie, also known as Horiemon, aims to develop relatively small rockets for satellite transport in mass production.
Lunar Cruiser: Toyota’s cosmic plans take off
The company has not yet progressed beyond prototypes. But here comes Toyota’s growing ambitions in space mobility. The automaker had already begun developing a hydrogen bus for moon exploration in the past decade. The Lunar Cruiser was essentially the moon-worthy version of Toyota’s legendary Land Cruiser off-road vehicle.
It is a six-seater moon vehicle with an oxygen atmosphere for longer excursions by moon researchers. The design is six meters long, 5.2 meters wide, and 3.2 meters high, equipped with a toilet, a shower, and a range of 10,000 kilometers. The energy is supplied by an innovative regenerative fuel cell system.
The idea originated from a motivational exercise for engineers, as a Toyota executive once explained. A working group discussed what engineers would like to produce. One of the ideas was vehicles for use in space.
The project became official, first with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) in 2019, then in April 2024 with the US space agency NASA. Since then, Toyota has officially become part of the American Artemis moon program. Accordingly, the company takes its product very seriously. In addition to a driving simulator, they have even developed a test track for the moon vehicle, complete with craters and obstacle courses.
Now, the company is also backing Interstellar Technologies. Its CEO, Takahiro Inagawa, has already stated that Woven by Toyota is the “ideal partner” to evolve rocket production from custom manufacturing to a scalable supply chain.
Hajime Kumabe, CEO of Woven by Toyota, revealed how: The new alliance will “utilize the extensive production capabilities of the Toyota group and harness our expertise to drive rocket production forward.” For Toyota, it is only logical: the Japanese manufacturer also builds yachts and has made a significant investment in the American air taxi manufacturer Joby Aviation. It seems that Toyota defines itself as a mobility company for humanity, wherever they may travel.