According to Bloomberg, Toyota Motor Corporation experienced a decline in global production and sales in the first half of this year. Significant decreases in the Japanese and Chinese markets offset the recovery in the North American hybrid vehicle market.
In a statement, Toyota said that its global production, including subsidiaries Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors Ltd., fell 9.8% year-on-year to about 5 million units in the first half of the year.
In terms of sales, Toyota's global sales fell 4.7% year-on-year to about 5.2 million units in the first half of the year. Despite a 57.2% increase in hybrid vehicle sales in North America, reaching a record 473,000 units, the company performed poorly in the Japanese and Chinese markets. Sales in Japan fell 22.3%, and sales in China fell 10.8%, largely due to widespread recalls of the Toyota Prius and other models, and fierce competition from Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers like BYD.
In June alone, Toyota's global sales fell 5.8% year-on-year to 912,971 units, marking five consecutive months of decline. At Toyota's annual shareholders meeting this year, Chairman Akio Toyoda's approval rating fell to its lowest point in two years. Some shareholders expressed concerns about his leadership and the company's hesitant attitude towards electric vehicles, citing this as a reason for Toyota falling behind BYD and Tesla.
In a podcast interview released on Toyota's media website on July 29, Akio Toyoda stated that if the shareholders' approval rating continues to decline, he will not be able to remain chairman next year. He said, "No chairman in Toyota's history has had such a low approval rating."
Currently, Toyota is still dealing with the fallout from scandals that erupted in its two subsidiaries in December last year, and several vehicle scandals that emerged in June this year. Reports indicated that Toyota had to suspend shipments of several models due to improper crash safety tests.
Meanwhile, Toyota and its financial partners and major investors have been reducing mutual stock holdings, following the Japanese government's urging for companies to streamline business relationships and reshape competitiveness.
Toyota recently announced plans to repurchase up to 806.8 billion yen (about 5.2 billion USD) of stock from major banks and insurance companies, as part of a 1 trillion yen repurchase plan announced in May this year.
On July 30, Honda Motor Co. also announced its first-half production and sales results. In the first half of this year, domestic sales in Japan increased by 21.2% to 341,782 units; exports to the North American market increased by 46.7%; but global production fell by 6.6% to 1,884,958 units. Nissan Motor Co.'s global sales increased by 2.4% to 1,711,690 units in the first half of this year, but global production fell by 4.4% to 1,614,112 units.
