AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)11/07 Report--

On November 6th, Toyota announced that it had produced 300 million vehicles worldwide by the end of September 2023, with the Corolla as the top seller, with a cumulative global production of 53.999 million vehicles.

In contrast, FAW Toyota, one of the domestic joint ventures, announced production cuts due to inventory pressure. A few days ago, FAW Toyota issued a letter to dealers, through a series of substantial downward adjustments to ensure a complete improvement of the inventory pressure and financial pressure of dealer partners, and to ensure that the business posture of dealers partners is healthy and benign.

According to the plan, under the premise that FAW-Toyota has slashed production in October and November, production from December to February next year will continue to be adjusted sharply downwards. From the perspective of dealers' perception, the allocation will be adjusted down to 66000 units in December, to 60, 000 units in January next year, and to 38000 units in February.

FAW Toyota, founded in June 2000, headquartered in Tianjin, is Toyota's first joint venture manufacturer in China, with complete vehicle manufacturing plants in Sichuan, Tianjin and Changchun respectively. According to the data, FAW-Toyota sold 834600 vehicles wholesale in 2022, while terminal sales were 806900. FAW Toyota sold 579000 vehicles wholesale in the first three quarters of 2023, while terminal sales were 551900.

Wholesale sales refers to the total amount of goods supplied by automobile manufacturers to dealers in batches, and terminal sales refers to the total amount of products sold by car dealers. Generally speaking, wholesale sales will be larger than terminal sales, and the excess is the dealer inventory. Judging from the data, whether in 2022 or the first three quarters of 2023, FAW Toyota's inventory is basically maintained at about 20,000 to 30,000 vehicles.

Retail data show that FAW-Toyota retail sales in the first three quarters of 2023 were 579000 vehicles, up 0.8 per cent from a year earlier, but the growth rate slowed significantly, with a market share of 3.8 per cent. Specific models, FAW Toyota sales of the top three models are still Corolla, RAV4 Rongfang, Carola Ruifang, respectively, 142800, 122300, 99100 respectively, but the main model sales declined significantly, especially Carola, sales in the same period in 2022 was 181700, down 21.4% compared with the same period last year, while RongFang increased 2.5% compared with the same period last year, while Camry sister model Asia Dragon dropped significantly, only 68100.

Have to CR, joint venture brand models are becoming more and more difficult to sell. Behind the production reduction of FAW Toyota is the inventory pressure of dealers. It has to be admitted that the current joint venture brand models are becoming more and more difficult to be recognized by Chinese consumers. With the formation of technical barriers in the electrification and intelligence of independent brands, consumers began to turn their attention to more economical and affordable domestic cars.

Under the background of electric transformation, the overall effect of mainstream joint venture brands is not obvious. Sales of Japanese brands totaled 2.6127 million in the first three quarters of 2023, down 15.4 per cent from a year earlier and accounting for 17.2 per cent of the Chinese market, compared with 20.0 per cent in 2022, according to the Federation. Joint venture brands, including Japanese brands, are bearing the strong impact of their own brands and the tremendous pressure of electric transformation at the same time. In the first three quarters, the market share of China's own brands was 50.7%, compared with 47.3% in 2022. In the new energy vehicle market, with the exception of Tesla, the top 10 manufacturers in the first three quarters of 2023 are all Chinese manufacturers.

In the electric car market, compared with the gradual maturity of Volkswagen's ID series product line, Toyota launched bZ4X and bZ3 sizes in China, but these two models failed to show satisfactory market performance, on the contrary, their hybrid products showed their advantages in the period of soaring oil prices.

In the view of the industry, there are still opportunities for joint venture brands, but changes must be made, especially at the marketing and technical level. Germany and Japan account for 40% of the Chinese market, indicating that Chinese consumers are not far away from joint venture brands, and joint venture brands still have great opportunities for development in the Chinese market, and changes in technology and marketing are inevitable. but if it is still unchanged, enjoy its success, do not adapt to the times for iteration and upgrading, then it is also doomed to be eliminated by the market, including Suzuki and Mitsubishi are bloody lessons.

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