The Japanese group Toyota remained the world's number one automobile in volume sales in 2022 for the third consecutive year, with nearly 10.5 million vehicles sold (-0.1%), according to data published Monday.
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Despite the impact of production constraints caused by the spread of Covid-19, increased demand for semiconductors and other factors, global sales remained at the same level as the previous year due to "strong demand centered on Asia
" outside Japan, Toyota said in a statement.
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These clouds should also start to dissipate this year: Toyota recently said it was aiming for production of between 9.5 and 10.6 million units of its Toyota and Lexus brands in 2023, compared to 9 million last year (+ 5.2% over one year).
The Toyota empire also includes two other brands, Daihatsu (mini-cars) and Hino (buses and trucks).
The German Volkswagen group remained number two in the world in 2022 with 8.3 million vehicles sold (-7%), according to figures published in mid-January.
Still progress to be made in all-electric
Toyota's sales in all-electric, a segment in which it was slow to launch seriously, preferring other technologies such as hybrid engines, however, still pale in comparison.
Its sales in this segment totaled only 24,466 units in 2022, very far from those of the American Tesla (1.3 million), the Chinese BYD (911,000) or the Volkswagen group (572,100).
The commercial start last year of Toyota's first full-scale all-electric model, the bZ4X SUV, was notably marred by a humiliating recall campaign soon after its launch because of a problem with its wheel mountings.
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Despite lagging behind in electrics, Toyota is expected to remain at the top of the global automotive hierarchy by volume in the coming years, according to Mio Kato, an analyst at LightStream Research in Tokyo posting on the Smartkarma platform.
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I think they
(Toyota, editor's note)
will probably remain number one, because the companies that are catching up quickly are more Chinese companies than the incumbent Western manufacturers, and the all-electric players are still too small to have a chance. realistic to catch up on a 3 to 5 year perspective
Mio Kato told AFP.
Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda made a surprise announcement last week that he will step down on April 1.
He will be replaced by one of his lieutenants, Koji Sato, while taking over the chairmanship of the board of directors.