Toyota Motor Corp. has improved its position over Volkswagen Group in the race to be 2022’s biggest automaker – with four months of sales results in the calendar year recorded and counted.
At the end of April 2022, Toyota – including Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino trucks – claimed 3,429,636 sales worldwide, a drop of 5.8 per cent.
By contrast, Volkswagen Group – including its bigger cluster of brands comprising Volkswagen Passenger and Commercial Vehicles, Skoda, Seat/Cupra, Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, Porsche, MAN, Scania and Navistar – posted 2,414,800 sales, down a steep 26 per cent.
That gives the Japanese giant a lead of more than one million units over its German arch-competitor.
Toyota Motor Corp and Volkswagen Group were 2021’s top two automakers, with respective global sales of 10,495,548 sales and 8,610,100 sales.
The respective dips in 2022 highlight how each monolith has navigated global supply chain challenges including the ongoing COVID shutdowns in Shanghai and war in Ukraine affecting key component suppliers, as well as the ongoing worldwide shortage of vital semiconductors.
Toyota has seemingly been forced to cut production every other week lately, with the most recent development being a move to shutter 10 Japanese plants for a whole business week in early June.
“We revised production plans to be more reasonably in line with recent realities and positioned the period from April to June as an ‘intentional pause”, TMC said this week.
“The production plan for April was formulated based on this approach, but due to the impact from the lockdown in Shanghai, China, production was lower than planned.”
Meanwhile Volkswagen AG chairman Herbert Diess told news service Reuters earlier this month he sees “clear improvement” in semiconductor supplies and expects the automaker’s global production can recover during the rest of this year.
However, that gap looks pretty insurmountable…
| Sales Jan-April 2022 | Change | |
|---|---|---|
| Toyota and Lexus | 3,120,233 | -6.0% |
| Daihatsu | 257,456 | -5.0% |
| Hino | 51,947 | 2.6% |
| Toyota Corp. total | 3,429,636 | -5.8% |
| Sales Jan-April 2022 | Change | |
| VW Passenger | 1,274,000 | -29.1% |
| Skoda | 239,200 | -28.4% |
| Seat and Cupra | 123,600 | -28.5% |
| VW Commercial | 104,100 | -21.2% |
| Audi | 487,000 | -23.2% |
| Lamborghini & Bentley | 7,900 | 1.4% |
| Porsche | 92,400 | -8.1% |
| MAN | 42,000 | -18.8% |
| Scania | 21,900 | -31.6% |
| Navistar | 22,600 | – |
| Volkswagen AG Total | 2,414,800 | -26.0% |
