Toyoda ranked most powerful in the auto world

Forbes magazine has released its list of the world’s most powerful people. Listing the 72 who rule the world of 7.2 billion people, these are the top 0.000001 percent of the population. The list includes politicians, dictators, religious leaders, and businessmen. The ranking takes into account a person’s power over people and financial resources. For CEOs, Forbes measures the company’s revenues and market value.

Toyota Motor Corp. chairman Akio Toyoda ranked at number 34. The head of the world’s largest automaker, Toyoda is the grandson of the company’s founder. He has steered the company back to winning over consumers, after massive recalls in the U.S. in 2010. The giant automaker is big in the U.S., Japan, and Southeast Asia, but still has paltry market share in Europe and China. Toyota has been a proponent of gasoline-electric hybrid but has not gone into pure electric vehicles. The company is instead showing of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. Forbes has ranked the Toyota brand as the most valuable in the automotive business.

Tesla Elon Musk is at No. 52. The California-based billionaire has challenged the premium car market with Tesla Motors’ lineup of all-electric vehicles. Tesla has notably outsold Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW in California. He is putting up a $5 billion ‘gigafactory’ to produce battery packs for as many as 500,000 cars by 2020, in preparation for expanding Tesla’s production capacity. He has opened up Tesla’s patents, allowing other manufacturers to use the technology to advance the electric car category. Musk has challenged the US car dealer system, as he wants Tesla to sell directly to customers.

Volkswagen’s Martin Winterkorn, at No. 58, leads Europe’s largest carmaker, with a target of 10 million auto sales in 2014. The VW group maintains a large stable of brands, from mainstream to luxury, among them Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, and Bugatti. According to Forbes, Winterkorn urged European regulators to give automakers more time to develop fuel-efficient cars. He plans to make VW the biggest electric carmaker in the world and put 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2020.

Mary Barra is the first female CEO of General Motors (and the first woman at the head of any of the eight biggest automakers) is listed at 62, just ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. She has weathered the storm of at least 21 deaths caused by faulty ignition switches. GM is profitable in North America and is targeting profits from its European operations by 2016.

Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are at No. 9. The company’s maps applications and Waze navigation system have changed the driving habits of millions. Google has strong designs on an autopilot system for cars, showing off a prototype of its self-driving car with a friendly cartoon-character face.