Japanese automaker Toyota is “exploring rockets,” chairman Akio Toyoda just announced on stage at CES 2025, while hinting at the idea of moving people through space.
Toyoda did not offer any details to explain what he meant. But he showed a stage rendering of a rocket designed by Interstellar Technologies, a private Japanese spaceflight company that is working on a small launch vehicle made to put satellites into space.
Toyoda was in the middle of explaining how he views his company’s myriad technologies as “invention by kakezan” or “invention by multiplication.”
“When it comes to what’s possible when you work together, 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 doesn’t have to be limited to just Earth, or just to one car company” – a potential dig at Tesla.
Spaceflight is a wild idea to tease at the end of a press conference, although a move like this has some merit. Sony surprisingly announced it was working on an electric car five years ago at CES and barely gave the news more than a few minutes of stage time.
Meanwhile, Toyota has been criticized for years for its overly cautious approach to electric vehicle development. Not only does it now look like a prescient move as major automakers scale back their ambitious electrification plans, perhaps Toyota just had its eyes on a very different prize – space.
