AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)05/30 Report--

On May 30, Toyota announced its global production and sales in April. According to the data, Toyota sold 797097 vehicles worldwide in April, down 0.5 per cent from a year earlier, including 107900 in Japan's domestic market, down 13.9 per cent from a year earlier, and 689200 in overseas markets, up 2.0 per cent from a year earlier. Toyota's global sales in 2024 were 3.1985 million vehicles as of April, down 0.1 per cent from a year earlier.

It is understood that this is the third consecutive month of decline in Toyota sales. Combined with previous data, Toyota's global sales fell 2.1 per cent in March and 7.0 per cent year-on-year in February, the first year-on-year decline since January 2023. Toyota said the main reasons for the decline included Dafa's response to the recall, long-term stagnation in Prius production and shipments, and huge sales pressure in the Chinese market.

In the global market, Toyota sold 107900 vehicles in japan in April, down 13.9% from a year earlier, due to a long-term stagnation in Prius production and shipments. In other markets, Toyota's listing in North America still showed rapid growth, with sales of 250000 vehicles, an increase of 15.7 percent over the same period last year, including 211800 vehicles in the United States, an increase of 13.7 percent year-on-year, and double-digit growth in Canada and Mexico. The same is true in the European market, where Toyota sold 91000 vehicles, up 18.2 per cent from a year earlier, with Britain, France and Germany all soaring, with the biggest increase in France, up 75.9 per cent to 12600.

Compared with the above two major markets, Toyota is caught in an "uphill battle" in the Central and South Asian market, which is also the main source of Toyota's decline in global sales. Data show that Toyota sold only 225700 vehicles in Central and South Asia in April, down 15.1% from a year earlier, of which 118200 vehicles were sold in China (including Hong Kong), down 27.3% from a year earlier. Toyota said the decline in sales in China was the result of fierce price competition. According to retail data, Toyota sold more than 10,000 models in China in April, namely Fenglanda, RAV4 Rongfang and Carola Ruifang, with sales of 14200, 12700 and 12100 respectively, followed by Camry and Weilanda at 9323 and 8675, respectively. Gravia, Sena and Leiling all had more than 5000 vehicles, and the previous leading models, such as the Hanlanda, Carola and Asian Dragon, declined significantly.

Like other Japanese manufacturers, Toyota has begun to fall into the awkward situation of "petrol cars are difficult to sell and trams are not hot", which is also the result of Chinese automakers' increasing electrification and price competitive advantage. Since 2024, the increasing price war of new energy vehicles by Chinese car companies has also brought a chill to the two car companies. In particular, BYD directly hit the slogan "electricity is lower than oil". Qin L and Seal 06, which started from 99800 yuan, poked directly into the "flesh and blood" of the joint venture manufacturer.

2024 is the key year for new energy automobile enterprises to gain a firm foothold, and the competition is destined to be very fierce. With the rapid improvement of the penetration of new energy vehicles, the scale of the traditional fuel vehicle market is gradually shrinking, and the contradiction between the huge traditional production capacity and the shrinking fuel vehicle market brings a more fierce price war. The scale determines the cost and the survival state of the enterprise, and most manufacturers give priority to the share, which is bound to further aggravate the price competition.

To this end, in the context of fiscal year 2023 performance far exceeding market expectations, Toyota's forecast for fiscal year 2024 is relatively negative. Toyota expects sales to rise 2 per cent to 46 trillion yen, operating profit down 19.7 per cent to 4.3 trillion yen and net profit down 27.8 per cent to 3.57 trillion yen. In terms of sales, Toyota expects sales of nearly 9.5 million vehicles in fiscal 2024, a slight increase compared with the same period last year. Toyota said that the change in performance, based on the transformation to a mobile travel company, Toyota will invest nearly 2 trillion yen. Among them, about 1.7 trillion yen will be spent on BEV (pure electric vehicle), artificial intelligence, software research and development, covering R & D investment and equipment investment, aimed at accelerating Toyota's SDV (Software defined vehicle) and BEV reform process.

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