Ford: Weak Yen Gives Toyota $11,000 Bonanza Per Car

Japan's weak yen has generated as much as $11,000 additional profit per car for rival Toyota Motor Corp., according to Bob Shanks, Ford Motor Co.'s chief financial officer.

Shanks tells Bloomberg that Ford figures the currency shift gave Toyota an extra $10 billion in profit in 2013.

He says a Ford analysis concludes the weak yen added $6,000 in profit per car for the average vehicle shipped from Japan to the U.S. in 2012-2013. Further currency weakening since then has hiked the windfall to an average $11,000 per vehicle.

Shanks points out notes that Toyota has acknowledged in recent years that a significant share of its profits were due to the weak yen. Bloomberg wasn't able to confirm Ford's estimates of the resulting per-vehicle profits.

Toyota emphasizes that it makes most cars sold in the U.S. locally, declaring, "We don't run our business based on the yen." But Bloomberg says a weak yen gives Toyota considerable power in places such as Russia, where the benefit of a weak yen enable the company to avoid hiking prices to offset local currency swings.