AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)01/31 Report--

On January 30, Toyota Motor Group released annual production and sales figures for December and 2022. Toyota sold 839300 vehicles worldwide in December 2022, down 1.40% from a year earlier, according to the data. Of these, domestic sales in Japan fell 12.21 per cent year-on-year to 99000 vehicles, while overseas sales rose 0.25 per cent to 740300 vehicles. In terms of production, Toyota's global production in December 2022 was 695400 vehicles, down 13.20 per cent from a year earlier, of which production in Japan's domestic market fell 15.03 per cent to 221600 vehicles, while production in overseas markets fell 12.31 per cent to 473900 vehicles.

According to the data, Toyota's production and sales data for December declined year-on-year except for a slight increase of 0.25% in overseas sales. Toyota said that global sales and production in December were lower than the previous year, mainly due to the spread of novel coronavirus infection and the shortage of parts caused by increased demand for semiconductors.

But for the whole of 2022, Toyota's sales figures also performed poorly. Toyota's cumulative global sales in 2022 were 9.567 million vehicles, down 0.5% from a year earlier, according to the data. Of these, domestic sales in Japan fell 12.66 per cent year-on-year to 1.2891 million vehicles, while overseas sales rose 1.71 per cent to 8.2778 million vehicles. In terms of sales data, although Toyota's annual sales fell slightly in 2022, it still leads Volkswagen Group and ranks first among global auto companies for three consecutive years. As a reference, Volkswagen Group, which ranked second, sold 8.2826 million vehicles in 2022, down 7% from a year earlier, its worst sales performance in more than a decade, mainly due to a shortage of spare parts caused by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Sales are under pressure.

Toyota said that despite the decline in production caused by the epidemic and increased demand for semiconductors, sales in 2022 were roughly the same as in 2021, thanks to strong demand in Asia.

The data show that Toyota has achieved double-digit growth in several Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, in sharp contrast to a year-on-year decline in Toyota's home market in Japan, North America and China. According to the previous statistics of Automotive Industry concern, Toyota's cumulative sales in the Japanese local market were 1.2891 million, down 12.66% from the same period last year; in the US market, Toyota's cumulative sales were 2.1085 million, down 9.6% from the same period last year, lagging behind the 2.2741 million vehicles of the American giant General Motors, which regained the annual top sales of American automakers. In the Chinese market, Toyota sold 1.9406 million vehicles, down 0.2% from a year earlier, its first year-on-year decline in a decade.

In fact, it was not easy for Toyota in 2022, although it retained the top spot in the world, but this year, Toyota's production plans were disrupted by a series of factors such as the epidemic and supply chain disruptions. in particular, the local market in Japan is particularly affected. According to the data, Toyota's global cumulative production in 2022 was 9.0267 million vehicles, up 5.15 per cent from a year earlier, of which production in Japan's domestic market fell 7.71 per cent to 2.656 million vehicles, while production in overseas markets rose 11.65 per cent to 6.3707 million vehicles. In addition, in response to soaring raw material costs and persistent chip shortages, ‍ Toyota has cut its production forecasts for Toyota and Lexus brands this fiscal year by 500000 to 9.2 million vehicles.

In terms of electrified model sales, Toyota's global sales of hybrid and pure electric vehicles rose 4 per cent year on year to 2.72 million in 2022, of which pure electric vehicle sales rose 70 per cent to 24400, an all-time high. But compared with Volkswagen, Toyota's layout in the field of pure electric vehicles is very slow. For comparison, Volkswagen's sales rose 26% year-on-year to 570000 vehicles in 2022.

"Automotive Industry concern" believes that in addition to the impact of major environmental factors, the deeper reason for the decline in Toyota car sales may be related to its current slow electrification transformation. In particular, BYD, Tesla and other car companies are constantly opening the gap with them in the field of electrification. At present, the supply chain problem is only a temporary problem for Toyota, and the longer-term challenge is how to deal with the transformation from traditional fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles.

In order to promote the electrification transformation as soon as possible, Toyota announced on January 26th that from April 1 this year, Takeshi Uchiyama, Toyota's current chairman, will be replaced by Akio Toyoda, who will step down as Toyota CEO and be replaced by Sato, Toyota's chief brand officer and head of the Lexus brand. This is Toyota's most senior personnel change after 14 years, and although Toyoda will step down as CEO, the industry believes that Toyoda is likely to continue to be deeply involved in the company's operations as chairman.

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