AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)10/29 Report--

On Oct. 27, Toyota announced that due to a shortage of chips and faster delivery of new cars, Toyota decided to temporarily replace smart keys with mechanical keys. In its announcement, Toyota said it would temporarily replace two intelligent digital keys (electronic keys and mechanical keys) with mechanical keys, and stressed: "this is a temporary measure aimed at delivering the car to customers as soon as possible." as for the second smart key (electronic key), it is planned to be handed over to the car owner as soon as it is ready. "

The models involved include 14 Toyota models, including the Crown, Camry, bZ4X, RAV4 and Land Cruiser, and 9 Lexus models, including LS, ES, IS, LC (including convertibles), LX, NX, UX and UX300e.

Toyota pointed out in the announcement that due to the shortage of semiconductors and other components, the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic and logistics stagnation and other factors, the future car production is still difficult to predict, but will continue to do its best to deliver new cars as soon as possible. In fact, Toyota has adjusted its monthly production pace several times since the beginning of fiscal year 2022 (April 2022-March 2023) and has repeatedly stressed its annual target of producing 9.7 million vehicles this fiscal year. On October 21, Toyota announced global production of 800000 vehicles in November, of which 250000 were in Japan's domestic market and 550000 in overseas markets. At the same time, Toyota had repeatedly announced that its annual production of 9.7 million vehicles in 2022 would remain unchanged. However, due to general environmental factors, Toyota expects global production in fiscal year 2022 (April 2022-March 2023) to fall below its original target of 9.7 million vehicles, a Toyota spokesman said. Toyota is assessing the impact of chip shortages on future production and will announce revised production targets once the situation becomes clear.

On October 28, Toyota Motor Group released production and sales data for the first half of fiscal year 2022 (April-September 2022). The data showed that global sales in the first half of 2022 (April-September 2022) fell 2.26% year-on-year to 4742280 vehicles, the first time in two years lower than the same period last year, of which domestic sales in Japan fell 16.37 to 590541 vehicles, while sales in overseas markets increased by 0.14% to 4151739 vehicles. On the production side, global production rose 9.80 per cent to 4481600 vehicles in the first half of fiscal year 2022 (April-September 2022), while local sales in Japan fell 7.72 per cent to 1287462 vehicles.

Among them, September production and sales data show that Toyota's global sales rose 17.9% to 825000 vehicles in September 2022 compared with the same period last year, including 25.9% to 119000 vehicles in Japan and 15.9% to 705000 vehicles in overseas markets. In terms of production, Toyota's global production increased by 73.1% to 887733 vehicles in September 2022, and domestic market production increased by 101.53% to 275605 vehicles.

Toyota said that due to tight supply and demand of semiconductors and the impact of the epidemic, sales in the first half of fiscal 2022 were lower than the same period last year, especially hit by Toyota's home market in Japan. Toyota's production and sales figures rose year-on-year in September due to strong car demand in September and government measures after a decline in production and sales figures affected by the previous year's epidemic.

Toyota is still suffering from parts shortages, but Toyota is not alone in adjusting capacity. On Oct. 28, Volkswagen said supply chain stagnation was "becoming the norm." and lowered the delivery target on the grounds that the lack of spare parts left 150000 vehicles unfinished. Volkswagen said that car deliveries this year would be the same as last year, failing to meet the 5-10 per cent growth target announced this summer. Due to structural shortages in semiconductors, supply bottlenecks will continue to affect the 2022 fiscal year. Semiconductor supply is expected to further improve in the fourth quarter. In addition, Volkswagen CEO Bloom said in his first earnings call since taking office nearly two months ago: "the challenges facing our supply chain will be the norm, not the exception." Volkswagen has set up a department to monitor threats to the supply chain and improve forecasts of potential shortages. On Oct. 25, Volvo announced that it would temporarily close a factory for a week due to the outbreak and persistent semiconductor shortages.

As for when will the shortage of chips be alleviated? Tang Weishi, chief executive of Stellantis, recently said he expected the chip shortage to ease by the end of 2023, while Arno Antlitz, chief financial officer of Volkswagen Group, said he expected the chip shortage to last until 2024. In other words, the chip shortage will still be the new normalization for a long time in the future. According to the latest data from auto industry data forecasting company Auto Forecast Solutions, the global auto market has lost about 3.6156 million vehicles this year due to a shortage of chips, of which 172900 vehicles have been cut in China due to lack of cores, accounting for only about 4.8% of the total reduced production, compared with some relief, but AFS predicts that the cumulative production reduction in the global auto market will climb to 4.2623 million by the end of this year.

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