AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)07/28 Report--

On July 28, Toyota Motor Group released the global production and marketing report for the first half of 2023. According to the data, Toyota sold 4.9376 million vehicles worldwide in the first half of 2023, up 5.1 percent from the same period last year, and produced 4.8938 million vehicles, up 12.3 percent from the same period last year, the highest level since the first half of 2019.

In terms of data, Toyota achieved growth in both sales and production in the middle of the year. In terms of global sales in the first half of the year, Toyota already leads the world in terms of global sales. If there is no accident, it may have the opportunity to lead the world for the fourth consecutive year. As a reference, Toyota's cumulative global sales for the whole year of 2022 fell 0.5% year on year to 9.567 million vehicles, leading Volkswagen Group and ranking first among global auto companies for three consecutive years. However, although Toyota retained the top spot in the world in 2022, it was a difficult year for Toyota, which was disrupted by a series of factors such as the epidemic and supply chain disruptions. this has led to a decline in Toyota's sales in many important markets around the world. Toyota's sales are on a year-on-year decline in 2022, including in Japan, the United States and China. Of these, sales in Japan's domestic market fell 12.66% year on year to 1.2891 million vehicles, its third consecutive year of decline; the US market fell 9.6% to 2.1085 million vehicles, lagging behind the 2.2741 million vehicles of the US giant General Motors; and the Chinese market is Toyota's first decline in nearly a decade, with cumulative sales of 1.9406 million vehicles, down 0.2% from the same period last year.

With regard to the production and sales performance in the first half of this year, Toyota said that sales and production in the first half of 2023 exceeded the same period a year earlier due to semiconductor supply problems and some relief by COVID-19. In terms of segmentation, Toyota's cumulative sales in Japan rose 33.2 per cent year-on-year to 878200 vehicles in the first half of 2023, compared with a 0.7 per cent year-on-year decline in the US and a 0.5 per cent year-on-year decline in Asia to about 1.5 million vehicles. It is important to note that Toyota's sales in China fell 2.8 per cent in the first half from a year earlier to 879400 vehicles. As for the reasons for the decline in sales, Toyota said that economic activity was restricted by the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic at the beginning of the year, as well as the withdrawal of promotional policies to boost sales in 2022, resulting in a significant retaliatory decline.

In terms of electrified model sales, Toyota (including the Lexus brand) sold 10200 pure electric vehicles worldwide in June, of which about 5000 were sold in China, bringing Toyota's total electric vehicle sales to 46200 in the first half of 2023. But compared with Volkswagen, Toyota's layout in the field of pure electric vehicles is very slow. In contrast, Volkswagen's global pure electric vehicle sales rose 48 per cent year-on-year to 322000 in the first half of 2023.

According to the analysis of subdividing into the Chinese market, up to now, Toyota has laid out two pure electric models in the Chinese market, namely the bZ4X and the bZ3. Among them, the bZ4X was listed in October last year, which is Toyota's first model based on e-TNGA architecture, positioning the medium-sized pure electric SUV, and undertaking the important task of Toyota's transformation to electrification, which is jointly produced and sold by GAC Toyota and FAW Toyota. BZ3 is Toyota's second bZ series model, officially launched on April 16, the new car launched a total of three models, the selling price range of 169800-199800 yuan, different from the bZ4X model, the car is only produced and sold by FAW Toyota, while Guangzhou Auto Toyota does not participate in production.

As the head brand of Chinese automobile joint venture brand, Toyota used to rely on fuel vehicles to seize a certain market share in the domestic market, but Toyota does not have a high sense of existence in the electric vehicle market. GAC retail data show that GAC-Toyota sold 1624 bZ4X vehicles in the first half of 2023, FAW-Toyota bZ4X sold 5041 vehicles and Toyota bZ3 sold 8222 vehicles.

Toyota and Lexus are scheduled to launch 10 new electric vehicles and a new pure electric platform in the next three years in order to reach the sales target of 1.5 million electric vehicles by 2026. As for short-term goals, as one of Toyota's most important markets, Toyota plans to launch two pure electric vehicles developed in China in 2024.

According to the latest news from the Nikkei News, Toyota plans to sell its 20% stake in Japanese telecom operator KDDI, worth about 250 billion yen, to raise funds for electrification transformations such as electric vehicles. It is understood that Toyota is the main shareholder of KDDI and invested in IDO, one of the predecessor of KDDI.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat