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

On January 30, Toyota Group officially released its 2023 sales results. According to the data, Toyota Group (including subsidiaries Dafa Motor and Hino Motor) sold 11.233 million vehicles worldwide in 2023, an increase of 7.2% over the same period last year, of which Toyota sold 10.307 million vehicles, up 7.7% from the same period last year. It is understood that this is the fourth year that Toyota Group has overtaken Volkswagen Group to become the world's largest carmaker. Volkswagen Group sold 9.24 million vehicles in 2023, an increase of 11.8% over the same period last year.

In terms of market segments, the three major regions with sales of more than 1 million are Asia, North America and Europe, of which the Asian market is the largest sales region of Toyota Group in the world. including China, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Vietnam, South Korea, India and other countries, excluding the Japanese local market, annual sales of 3.319 million vehicles, down 0.2% from a year earlier Among them, China is the largest sales country, with Toyota selling 1.908 million vehicles in the Chinese market (including Hong Kong / Macau) in 2023, down 1.7% from the same period last year, accounting for 57.5% of the total sales in Asia and 17.0% of Toyota's global sales. It is understood that, including the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, South Korea, India and other countries have achieved sales growth, Toyota in the Asian market has become a new source of sales growth.

As mentioned above, the Chinese market is not Toyota's largest single market. In 2023, Toyota sold 2.671 million vehicles in North America, up 7.0% from the same period last year, of which 2.248 million were sold in the United States, up 6.6% from the same period last year. It is Toyota's largest single market in the world, accounting for 84.2% of total sales in Asia and 23.8% of Toyota's global sales.

By contrast, the European market is smaller, but it is also growing. Toyota sold 1.126 million new cars in Europe in 2023, up 9.1 per cent from a year earlier. Among them, the highest sales market is the UK, up 14.8 per cent year-on-year to 147000 vehicles, followed by France and Italy at 133000 and 116000 respectively, and only 90000 in Germany, but growth has been achieved in almost all markets.

In its home market, Toyota sold 1.673 million vehicles for the year, up 29.8% from a year earlier.

Fuel cars are the absolute main force of Toyota's sales. Toyota sold only 104000 pure electric vehicles in 2023, accounting for 0.1 per cent of global sales. Even if Toyota announces a comprehensive transition to electrification, Toyota has never wanted to dominate pure electric vehicles, continue to adhere to the diversified development of EV, PHEV, HEV and FCV, and actively promote the landing of solid-state cells, hydrogen fuel cells and other electrified technologies. To this end, the former boss Akio Toyoda has repeatedly attacked electric cars, believing that pure electric cars can only account for up to 30% of the market share, while the rest will be occupied by hybrid cars, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and fuel vehicles.

In the Chinese market, Toyota's several pure electric cars have not caused much waves, whether it is bZ4X or bZ3, sales have never been able to compete with mainstream electric car companies. Gradually, Toyota has become a laggard in the era of new energy vehicles, still pinning its hopes on fuel vehicles to dominate the global market.

While Toyota continues to consolidate its position as the world's largest carmaker and overtakes Volkswagen with a sales gap of nearly 2 million vehicles, BYD is currently the most watched market. In 2023, BYD sold 3.024 million vehicles worldwide. Although its sales scale is far lower than that of Toyota and Volkswagen, it has entered the top 10 of the global market and is the only car company in the world that only sells new energy vehicles. It is the largest electric vehicle company in the world. In the future, with the weakening of the fuel vehicle market, electric car companies dominated by BYD will continue to influence the market position of multinational car companies.

Of course, although Chinese car companies have taken the lead in the smart electric track, the staying power of these multinational giants should not be underestimated. The tide of the electric era is surging, the design of dolls, outdated style, intelligence can not keep up with the mainstream of the market, and so on, so that the advantages of fuel cars are gone. In this context, electric transformation is imminent, and from the current market layout, whether internal self-evolution or external cooperation is to stay in the Chinese market as far as possible, but it is not so easy for this huge ship to reach the other shore quickly.

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