Companies
30/01/2024

Toyota Is Still The Highest Selling Auto Company In The World, Its Chairman Regrets For The Scandals




After reporting record-breaking annual sales of 11.2 million vehicles in 2023, Toyota Motor opens new tab maintained its position as the best-selling automaker in the world for a fourth year running, though its chairman issued an apology on Tuesday regarding issues at three group subsidiaries.
 
The Japanese carmaker revealed a 7.2% increase in group sales worldwide in the previous year, which included sales at truck division Hino Motors and small-car manufacturer Daihatsu, opens new tab.
 
The brand's reputation for quality and safety around the world may suffer as a result of governance problems with the certification test processes for automobiles and engines that have plagued those two companies and affiliate Toyota Industries, opens new tab.
 
"I would like to express my deepest apologies to our customers and stakeholders for the inconvenience and concern caused by the successive irregularities at Hino Motors, Daihatsu and Toyota Industries," Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda told reporters at an event to announce a vision for the Toyota group founded by his great-grandfather that now includes 17 companies.
 
Employees were advised to concentrate on the following five attitudes: "Be honest and make things in a right way."
 
The ceremony was moved up from its initial date of February 14, which was Sakichi Toyoda's birthday, according to the business. This was done in response to recent anomalies at Toyota's group firms.
 
For nine of the previous ten years, Toyota's global group sales have exceeded 10 million cars, with the exception of 2020, when the auto industry suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
The German competitor Volkswagen Group, ranked second, said this month that its sales increased by 12% to 9.2 million vehicles in the previous year, indicating a post-pandemic recovery as supply chain constraints decreased.
 
According to figures released on Tuesday, sales of Toyota's parent-only brands, which include Lexus and its own nameplate, reached a record 10.3 million units in 2023.
 
Approximately one-third of those were gasoline-electric hybrids. Less than 1% of vehicles were battery-electric.
 
However, Toyota faces a slowdown in the group's sales momentum following Daihatsu's suspension of all car shipments last month due to safety crisis issues involving 64 models, over two dozen of which were sold under the Toyota brand.
 
On Tuesday, Daihatsu said that its worldwide sales fell by roughly 8% in December and that its global output fell by 25% to 121,000 vehicles. Earlier in the day, the Japanese Transport Ministry lifted a prohibition on the export of ten cars manufactured by Daihatsu.
 
Following the discovery of misconduct in tests for diesel engines produced by supplier Toyota Industries, an independent panel revealed on Monday that Toyota was stopping the shipments of a number of its vehicles, including the Hilux truck and the Land Cruiser 300 SUV.
 
A different commission assigned to look into an emissions issue at Hino Motors discovered in 2022 that the truck division had been fabricating engine emissions data since 2003.
 
(Source:www.foxbusiness.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell
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