AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)01/06 Report--

According to the latest report of Kyodo News Agency of Japan, the sales volume of 6 Japanese automobile enterprises in the United States, including Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mazda, totaled 4.7586 million vehicles in 2022, down 17.9% year-on-year. According to the statistics of "Automobile Industry Concern," the sales volume of 6 Japanese automobile enterprises all showed a year-on-year decline trend, among which Honda automobile fell the most, down 32.9% year-on-year.

According to the comprehensive sales performance of 6 automobile enterprises in the United States, the cumulative sales volume of Honda automobile in the United States in 2022 was 983,500 vehicles, down 32.9% year-on-year, which was the highest decline among the above 6 automobile enterprises. The main reason was the shortage of supply chain. Before that, Honda Automobile once said that the railway embargo on the west coast of the United States aggravated the supply dilemma, and the insufficient production capacity seriously affected the supply of new vehicles. In addition to the U.S. market, Honda China also released terminal car sales data for 2022. In 2022, Honda sold 1.3731 million terminal cars in China, which contracted compared with the U.S. market, but also fell by 12.07%.

Toyota, the top-selling automaker on the list, sold 2,108,500 vehicles for the year, but still lags behind US auto giant General Motors. Data show that GM's sales in the United States rose 2.5% year-on-year to 2,274,100 vehicles in 2022, regaining the annual sales crown of U.S. cars. In fact, since surpassing Ford in 1931, General Motors has maintained the top sales performance in the United States. By 2021, Toyota surpassed GM's 2.218 million vehicles with an annual sales score of 2.332 million vehicles, becoming the first overseas automobile brand to win the top in the United States. However, a year later, General Motors has returned to the top position in the United States.

Toyota's sales decline was also dragged down by a series of factors such as the epidemic and supply chain disruptions. Toyota's production plan after 2022 has been disrupted and monthly production has been cut several times. Toyota lowered its global production forecast for this fiscal year (April 2022-March 2023) by 500,000 units to 9.2 million units in November. In addition, including Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Nissan and other automobile enterprises have also suffered production suspension or production reduction, the negative impact of limited production capacity also directly led to the decline of new car sales end trend is more and more obvious. Nissan sales fell 25.4 per cent year-on-year to 729,400 vehicles in 2022, Mitsubishi fell 15.9 per cent year-on-year to 85,800 vehicles, Mazda fell 11.4 per cent year-on-year to 294,900 vehicles and Subaru fell 4.7 per cent year-on-year to 556,600 vehicles, the list showed.

In view of the reasons for the collective decline in sales of Japanese automobile enterprises in the United States in 2022,"Auto Industry Concern" believes that it may be affected by insufficient inventory of new vehicles caused by epidemic situation and supply chain chaos. Of course, in addition to the sharp decline of Japanese auto companies in the United States, the overall performance of the U.S. auto market in 2022 is also poor due to the impact of production stagnation limiting the supply of new cars. According to research firm J.D. Power and LMC Automotive forecast U.S. auto sales are expected to be 13.7 million in 2022, down 8 percent from a year earlier, or the lowest since 2011, compared with more than 17 million annual sales for five consecutive years before the outbreak. Jeff Schuster, president of global forecasting at LMC Automotive, said: "We expect high risk and uncertainty in 2023 as several markets may be coping with a recession."

It should be noted that the United States is not the only market that has experienced sales decline, and Japan's sales performance is not ideal. Sales of new cars in Japan in 2022 were 4201321, down 5 percent from 2021 and the lowest level in 45 years, according to the Japan Broadcasting Association. However, Japanese car dealers said supply constraints were expected to ease in 2023.

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