General Motors (GM) slid to fifth place with an overall sales drop of 13%, but it saw sales of electric vehicles surge 130%, fuelled by strong Chinese demand.
Toyota’s group sales grew 10% to 10.5 million vehicles, including those of Daihatsu Motor and Hino Motors, the Japanese company said Friday.
Production in Japan slowed significantly in the autumn of 2021 as coronavirus outbreaks in Southeast Asia constrained Toyota’s supply chain. But the group was generally able to handle the chip shortage better than its competitors.
Parts supplies from Europe stalled in certain regions, but this was overcome in part through higher inventories at group member Denso.
The group was able to roll out new models mostly as scheduled and gave production priority to models in high demand, succeeding in selling more cars on the year, including in its main markets of the US and China.
Including the tally from Subaru, which became an equity-method affiliate in 2020, brings Toyota’s total to 11.4 million vehicles, up 9%.
Meanwhile, second-place Volkswagen’s sales declined 5% to 8.88 million vehicles – down about 20% from 2019, when it held the top spot. The German automaker posted weaker sales in its key markets of Western Europe and China.
Volkswagen struggled in particular in China against intense competition from local players and electric vehicle giant Tesla, with sales there slipping 14%. Its focus on having enough chips for high-margin luxury models hurt passenger cars and other affordable models.
GM relinquished the fourth position it had held for four years. The Detroit company suffered a fifth consecutive year of sales declines, with the 2021 level falling 13% to six million vehicles, according to its preliminary figures as of Friday.
The chip shortage dealt a blow to production of GM’s mainstay pickup trucks, forcing it to idle half of its North American factories in September and resulting in considerably reduced output.
As sales slumped 13% in the US, GM was unseated as the top seller in its home market for the first time by Toyota.
But GM is gaining momentum in the electric vehicles space. Its worldwide sales in this segment more than doubled to 500,000 units, outpacing Tesla’s growth.
The boom is fuelled by the super low-cost Hongguang Mini EV from SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile, a three-way joint venture with SAIC Motor and Liuzhou Wuling Motors.
The microcar that comes with a price tag of about US$4,300 has become a big seller in regional cities across China.
In contrast, Toyota’s EV sales came to just 14,000 vehicles, accounting for a mere 0.1% of the group’s sales and far below the 5% at Volkswagen.
Other Japanese peers also trail global rivals in the EV field, with seventh-place Honda Motor and ninth-ranked Suzuki Motor recording less than 1% each.
The EV ratio stood at about 3% for the alliance of Nissan Motor, Renault and Mitsubishi Motors, which ranked third in total global sales.