AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/30 Report--

On March 30, Toyota Motor Group released production and sales data for February 2023. Toyota sold 773700 vehicles globally in February 2023, up 10.26 per cent from a year earlier, with domestic sales in Japan up 53.21 per cent to 155800 and overseas sales up 2.97 per cent to 617400, according to data. On the production side, Toyota's global production rose 2.0 per cent year-on-year to 755800 vehicles in February 2023, slightly higher than the previous target of 750000 vehicles, with domestic production rising 11.16 per cent to 281500 vehicles and overseas production falling 2.75 per cent to 474300 vehicles.

According to the analysis of the latest production and sales data, Toyota Motor Group achieved year-on-year growth in February except for a 2.75% drop in overseas production compared with the same period last year. As for the increase in production and sales data in February, Toyota said it was mainly affected by the expansion of novel coronavirus infection and tight supply and demand for semiconductors in the previous year, while the situation has improved in this period, with global sales and production exceeding the previous year's level. However, Toyota still stressed that due to the insufficient supply of semiconductors and the expanded impact of novel coronavirus infection, it is difficult to predict Toyota's follow-up production and sales, but Toyota will pay close attention to the supply of spare parts. minimize sudden production cuts and deliver more new cars to customers as soon as possible.

Toyota has repeatedly stopped and cut production in its Japanese market since 2022, but so far, although this situation has eased somewhat, Toyota still suffers from shortages of semiconductors and other components, the spread of COVID-19 epidemic and logistics stagnation. Earlier, Toyota announced on its official website that global production in March 2023 was about 900000 vehicles, of which about 350000 vehicles were produced in Japan's local market and 550000 vehicles were produced in overseas markets. Affected by the above factors, a small number of production lines at Toyota's 14 factories in Japan's local market in March will be suspended for a total of 3 days. The affected model is the Lexus LC. But Toyota is not the only car company affected by these factors. Japanese car companies, including Honda and Suzuki, are also facing the problem of suspending production.

According to auto industry data forecasting company AutoForecast Solutions (hereinafter referred to as "AFS"), the global automobile market has reduced production by more than 14.9 million vehicles due to lack of cores between 2021 and 2022. Supply constraints such as chips have also directly led to a decline in new car production capacity and feedback on new car sales. Take new car sales in Japan as an example. Data show that new car sales in the Japanese market were 4201321 in 2022, down 5 per cent from a year earlier and the lowest level in 45 years.

As for the chip supply this year, AFS expects that the global car production reduction will climb to about 2.75 million vehicles by the end of this year, and a number of industry insiders predict that the chip shortage will last until the end of 2023 or early 2024, which also means that the production capacity of Japanese car companies, including Toyota, may continue to be restrained, but from the latest production and sales data in February and Toyota's expected production capacity in March, the shortage of Toyota auto parts has been alleviated.

On the same day, Toyota launched the RZ, the first pure electric vehicle model of the high-end brand Lexus for the Japanese local market, with a starting price of 8.8 million yen (about 457000 yuan), and can enjoy subsidies related to pure electric vehicles from the Japanese government and the autonomous body. In terms of retail prices without subsidies, "RZ" is priced higher than major models such as "RX" (starting at 6.64 million yen) and "NX" (starting at 4.55 million yen). It is understood that at present, the electric car sold by Lexus is the SUV "UX", and the RZ is its first pure electric vehicle, which uses the electric drive device "E-Axle" with a combination of motor and inverter, with a range of about 490km.

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