Toyota has revealed that it sold more than 10 million vehicles worldwide in fiscal year 2013/14, spurred mainly by brisk January-March 2014 sales in Japan and China, helping it to stay ahead of rivals General Motors and Volkswagen during the quarter.
IHS Automotive perspective | |
Significance | Toyota Group's global sales surpassed the 10-million-unit mark during fiscal year (FY) 2013/14, with domestic sales rising 3.9% to more than 2.40 million units and overseas sales increasing 4.7% to more than 7.73 million units. |
Implications | Toyota's full FY volumes were spurred mainly by brisk January-March 2014 sales in Japan and China, helping Toyota to stay ahead of rivals General Motors and Volkswagen (VW) during the quarter. |
Outlook | VW, which plans to sell as many vehicles as Toyota in 2014 by expanding in China and benefiting from a recovery in Europe, is fast catching up. IHS Automotive believes that Toyota will hold onto the top position in the industry until 2016 or 2017, beyond which it may need to grow more in China if it wants to maintain its leading status. |
Toyota has announced today (23 April) that its global group sales grew 4.5% year on year (y/y) to 10.13 million units during the fiscal year (FY) that ended 31 March 2014. Its sales in Japan increased 3.9% y/y to more than 2.40 million during the period, while its overseas sales rose 4.7% y/y to more than 7.73 million units. Worldwide sales of the Toyota brand rose 4.2% y/y to 9.05 million units, while those under the Daihatsu brand increased 7.1% y/y to 913,000 units and those under the Hino truck brand grew 7.5% y/y to 166,000 units. In Japan, the Toyota brand's sales increased 2.2% y/y to 1.65 million units during the period, while Daihatsu and Hino sales grew 7.0% y/y to 701,397 units and 19.4% y/y to 52,193 units, respectively. Overseas, Toyota-brand sales increased 4.7% y/y to 7.4 million units, while Daihatsu and Hino sales grew 7.3% y/y to 212,000 units and 2.8% y/y to 114,000 units, respectively.
Meanwhile, group-wide production increased 5.3% y/y to around 10.24 million units during the FY, with domestic output rising 1.6% y/y to 4.34 million units and overseas output growing 8.2% y/y to nearly 5.90 million units. Worldwide production of the Toyota brand rose 4.5% y/y to 8.95 million units, while the number of vehicles manufactured under the Daihatsu badge increased 13% y/y to 1.11 million units and output under the Hino truck brand rose 4.4% y/y to 180,527 units.
Ahead in Q1 2014
Toyota Group's worldwide sales during the January-March period this year reached 2.58 million units, outselling rivals General Motors (GM) and Volkswagen (VW) for a third straight quarter, reports Bloomberg. GM announced earlier this week that its global first-quarter deliveries grew 2.0% y/y to nearly 2.42 million units (see World: 21 April 2014: GM delivers 2.4 mil. units globally in Q1). VW also said earlier this month that its global first-quarter sales rose 5.8% y/y to exactly 2.40 million units, but the German automaker is yet to disclose numbers for its MAN and Scania heavy-truck units (see World: 14 April 2014: VW Group posts strong growth of 7.6% y/y in March).
Outlook and implications
With global group-wide sales of 9.98 million units, Toyota retained its crown as the world's largest automaker for the second straight year in calendar-year 2013, eclipsing GM on 9.71 million units and VW, which ended the year on 9.73 million units. Toyota's global group output nevertheless breached the 10-million-unit mark during 2013, thus making it the world's first automaker group to reach the milestone and prompting it to set a 10-million-unit-plus sales target for 2014 (see World: 23 January 2014: Toyota Group achieves 2% global sales growth in 2013, expects to break 10-mil.-unit barrier during 2014).
Toyota's global sales volumes during FY 2013/14 were bolstered by rising demand in Japan and China, particularly so during the final quarter (that is, the first quarter of 2014). Sales jumped 16.4% y/y to 757,253 units in Japan during January-March 2014 as buyers brought forward their purchases to avoid the consumption tax hike from 5% to 8% effective from 1 April. In China, sales during the quarter surged 23.4% y/y to 227,900 units, prompting Toyota to aim for Chinese sales of 1.1 million units this year, up from 917,500 units in 2013. The January-March 2014 quarter ended what Toyota believes was its most profitable fiscal year ever, estimating a record JPY1.9-trillion (USD18.5-billion) profit, mainly because of a weaker yen. That said, VW is snapping at its heels. The German automaker plans to sell as many vehicles as Toyota in 2014 by expanding in China and benefiting from a recovery in Europe. Toyota has also lost some of the advantage this year as the yen's depreciation has slowed and recall-related costs have mounted. Last month, the company agreed to pay a record USD1.2-billion fine in the United States for misleading consumers about safety defects during the 2009–10 recall crisis over unintended acceleration. Separately, it called back more than 6 million vehicles this month to fix a range of safety defects in what was the automaker's second largest recall ever (see World: 9 April 2014: Toyota recalls 6.39 mil. vehicles globally over multiple problems). GM, however, has suffered similar problems. Although its global deliveries are rising this year, even outselling VW in China, the company is under fire because it took years to recall millions of vehicles for faulty ignition switches linked to at least 13 deaths (see United States: 11 April 2014: GM issues new recall for ignition lock cylinder, suspends engineers, and takes USD1.3-bil. charge – report).
IHS Automotive's Tokyo-based analyst Masatoshi Nishimoto believes that Toyota will hold onto the top position in the industry until 2016 or 2017, beyond which it may need to grow more in China if it wants to maintain its leading status.