By Moses Akaigwe
Toyota Motor Corp. has announced that it sold 10.5 million vehicles in 2022, defending its title as the world’s top-selling automaker for a third straight year.
Global sales for the group, including truck unit Hino Motors and small-car maker Daihatsu, inched down 0.1% as record overseas sales of 8.6 million vehicles helped offset a 9.6% dip in its home market to 1.9 million.
Second-ranked rival Volkswagen Group earlier this month reported its lowest sales in over a decade, of 8.3 million vehicles, as COVID-19 lockdowns in China and the war in Ukraine upended supply chains.
While some chip-related supply constraints remained for Toyota as well, the Japanese automaker said strong demand in Asia and an increase in the production capacity and optimisation in Asia and North America helped it boost global production by 5% in 2022.
Toyota in November revised its production forecast for the current financial year through the end of March, to 9.2 million vehicles from 9.7 million.
The report shows that from January to December, 2022, despite the impact of production constraints caused by the spread of COVID-19, increased demand for semiconductors, and other factors, global sales were at the same level year-on-year as a result of solid demand centered around Asia.
This represents a rebound from parts supply shortages associated with the spread of COVID-19 in the previous year, and other factors.
In December 2022, global sales and production were both down year-on-year due to the impact of parts supply shortages caused by the impact from the spread of COVID-19 and increased demand for semiconductors.
The situation remains difficult to predict due to semiconductor shortages and COVID-19. However, we will continue to carefully monitor the parts supply situation and minimize sudden decreases in production as much as possible while making every effort to deliver as many vehicles to our customers at the earliest date.