Toyota Motor Corp chairman Akio Toyoda yesterday said he was “ashamed” of recent scandals involving subsidiaries of the Japanese auto giant, as the firm announced record vehicle sales of 11.2 million across its brands last year.
The bumper figure — an industry record — allowed Toyota to retain its position as the world’s top-selling automaker for the fourth successive year, thanks to a recovery in demand and easing chip shortages.
Taking only the Toyota and Lexus brands, global volume sales totaled 10.3 million units, but growth fell for Daihatsu Motor Co, which builds mini-vehicles and is embroiled in a rigged safety test scandal.
Photo: Kyodo via Reuters
Truck and bus maker Hino Motors Ltd, which has also been hit by a scandal related to rigged tests of its engines in Japan, saw volume sales sink almost 10 percent.
It came a day after Toyota said it was suspending shipments of 10 models that use diesel engines linked with testing irregularities at an affiliate, Toyota Industries Corp.
Toyoda bowed in apology at a press conference and said he was ultimately responsible for the misconduct.
“I deeply apologize for the repeated wrongdoings by Hino Motors, Daihatsu Motor and Toyota Industries that have caused troubles and worries to customers and stakeholders,” he told reporters.
“They lost sight of the values and priorities that should have been upheld,” he said, adding that he was “ashamed” of the situation.
“It will take time to recover the trust back from our customers,” Toyoda said, promising to lead a “transformation.”
Toyota’s total vehicle sales figure was a jump of 7.2 percent from a year earlier and compares with 9.2 million for Germany’s Volkswagen Group, whose unit sales soared 12 percent.
South Korea’s Hyundai-Kia Group retained third place last year with 7.3 million units sold, up 6.7 percent.
Toyota attributed its performance to “solid demand in each region, in addition to easing chip shortages in each region.”
However, in terms of market value, Elon Musk’s US electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla Inc remained No. 1.
Toyota last year sold just 104,018 EVs — a fraction of the 1.81 million for Tesla and 1.57 million for China’s BYD Co (比亞迪).
The company has said that by next year it plans to have an electrified version for every Toyota and Lexus model globally, and aims to sell 1.5 million EVs annually by 2026 and 3.5 million by 2030.
Yesterday’s figure combined sales for the Toyota, Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino brands, and beat Toyota’s own previous record of 10.7 million set in 2019, the year before it overtook Volkswagen.
Volkswagen’s 2019 unit sales of 10.97 million was the previous industry record.
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