Toyota posts record 11.2M vehicles sold
TOKYO: Japan’s Toyota said on Tuesday it sold a record 11.2 million vehicles in 2023, cementing its position as the world’s topselling automaker for the fourth successive year, thanks to a recovery in demand in all regions and easing semiconductor shortages.
The figure, which represents units shifted by the firm and its subsidiaries, represented a jump of 7.2 percent on-year and compares with 9.2 million for Germany’s Volkswagen Group, whose unit sales soared 12 percent.
South Korea’s Hyundai-Kia retained third place in 2023 with 7.3 million units sold, up 6.7 percent.
In terms of market value, however, Elon Musk’s US electric automaker Tesla remains number one ahead of the Japanese giant.
Toyota on Tuesday credited for its performance “solid demand in each region, in addition to easing semiconductor shortages in each region.”
“We will continue to carefully monitor the parts supply situation and make every effort to deliver as many vehicles as possible to our customers at the earliest date,” a statement added.
Tuesday’s figure combined sales for the Toyota, Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino brands, and beat its own previous record of 10.7 million set in 2019, the year before it overtook Volkswagen.
Taking only Toyota and Lexus, global volume sales totaled 10.3 million units.
Growth for Daihatsu, which builds mini-vehicles, fell while those of truck and bus maker Hino
which has been hit by a scandal of rigged tests of its engines in Japan sank almost 10 percent.
Toyota, however, has been slower than some other rivals to embrace electric vehicle (EV) investment having long focused more on hybrids.
In 2023, it sold just 104,018 EVs, a fraction of 1.81 million of Tesla and 1.57 million for China’s BYD.
Toyota’s hybrid unit sales were 3.4 million last year, a jump of 31.4 percent.
But the company has said that by 2025 it plans to have an electrified version for every Toyota and Lexus model globally.
Apology
Meanwhile, Toyota chief Koji Sato apologized on Monday to customers, suppliers and dealers for flawed testing at a group company, following a series of similar problems in recent years.
The latest woes at Japan’s top automaker involve testing required for Japanese government approval at Toyota Industries Corp., which makes diesel engines.
False results were found for certification testing and other sampling inspections for engines which claimed the products met standards when they actually did not, according to Toyota.
“We will do our utmost to resume production as soon as possible,” Sato said at a hastily called news conference late Monday at Toyota’s Tokyo office.
“Management was not able to fully comprehend and keep track of the details of what was happening on the ground,” he said.
Skirting of required tests surfaced last year at Daihatsu Motor Corp., which makes small cars and is 100-percent owned by Toyota. That cheating, which came to light because of a whistleblower, spanned decades.
In 2022, Hino Motors, a truck maker that’s also part of the Toyota group, said it had systematically falsified emissions data dating back as far as 2003.
No major accidents have been reported in connection with any of the cheating, but the news has raised serious questions about oversight at the companies, as well as at Toyota.
Production has stopped for many Toyota group models until proper testing can be carried out, although people who already own the models can continue to drive them safely, according to the companies.
When asked about the root causes of the repeated scandals, Sato said better communication was needed among the companies, as well as a more thorough education about the importance of complying with rules.
He also acknowledged that workers were feeling pressure to cut corners in an intensely competitive industry. Toyota management needs to better understand what is happening on the ground as auto industry technology rapidly evolves, Sato said.
“We recognize that not only people at the testing site but also management did not have proper understanding of certification,” he said.