A very different tone to the June sales report from Toyota compared with the upbeat March when the company revealed record global sales for the year to March 31 (the end of the company’s financial year).
Toyota said its global production fell again in June, down for a fifth month in a row. The auto giant continues to be hit by a certification scandal in its home market and a fierce price war in China.
Output worldwide for Japan’s biggest automaker slid 12.9% to 795,862 vehicles, the sharpest decline since December 2022 when sales were constrained by COVID restrictions.
In Japan, output plunged 18.8% in the wake of the transport ministry finding irregularities in applications by Toyota and other automakers to certify certain models. This scandal shows no sign of abating and is in fact widening.
But China is where the sales problems are most severe. The absence of a range of EVs and plug-in hybrids is hurting the company badly, with production slumping 21%. Chinese domestic electric vehicle makers like BYD dominate the market, having aggressively cut prices and severely impacted companies like Toyota. June was the fifth month in a row that the company’s Chinese sales have plunged by 20% or more.
Production in North America fell 6.2%, while in Europe it dropped 6.6% due to fewer production days compared to last year. Toyota’s worldwide sales fell 5.1% during the month, impacted by declines in Japan and China.
A standout was a 57% surge in sales of hybrids in North America, with a record 473,000 units reported.
The giant is due to report first-quarter financial results on Thursday. It is expected to log a 21% rise in operating profit from a year earlier to 1.35 trillion yen ($US8.7 billion), according to analysts. This is thanks to a weaker yen and robust demand for hybrid vehicles in the United States.
During the first six months of this year, the automaker’s global sales fell nearly 5%, while worldwide sales dipped 0.9%. Global production was down 9% over the six months to June.
However, this fall didn’t prevent Toyota from remaining the biggest car group globally. For the first half of 2024, the group, including Daihatsu Motor Co, Lexus, and Hino Motors Ltd., reported global sales of 5.16 million vehicles, down 4.7% from a year earlier but still surpassing the 4.34 million sales reported by VW.