Toyota overtakes GM to lead US auto sales for 2021

Japanese carmaker Toyota led US vehicle gross sales in 2021, in accordance to figures unveiled Tuesday, overtaking Normal Motors for the very first time as a shortage of semiconductors roils the auto market.

The shift atop the rankings arrived just after a yr in which assembly lines have been plagued by shortage of the vital personal computer chips, ensuing in steep fourth-quarter sales declines for both equally providers.

But Toyota nevertheless managed to increase yearly gross sales in the United States by 10.4 p.c to 2.3 million, even though Common Motors experienced a 12.9 per cent fall to 2.2 million.

Toyota, which has been credited with improved administration of the chip issue when compared with some rivals, observed small once-a-year gains for two leading-promoting sedans, the Camry and the Corolla, and a modest dip in product sales of its Rav4 compact SUV. Its total-sized Highlander SUV scored larger income in 2021.

GM, which depends far more seriously on vans than Toyota, saw an yearly 10.8 percent drop in its Silverado pickup trucks and a 6.4 % slide in its GMC truck line.

GM has held the crown as the variety-a single corporation in US automobile product sales since 1931, when it supplanted Ford, according to trade publication Automotive News.

Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist at Cox Automotive, mentioned that GMs’ de-emphasis of sedans has price it some market share, and characterized Toyota’s ascendance as a “major event” presented GM’s longtime management.

In a market place starved of inventory, Toyota also may well have benefited from a scaled-down vendor community in contrast with GM, Ford and Stellantis, which owns the Chrysler brands, he stated.

“The larger sized supplier networks of GM/Ford/Stellantis may have faced a higher problem of retaining the right products in the correct sector for the suitable consumer,” Chesbrough mentioned in an electronic mail. “And, as a consequence, income may well have been trimmed due to the fact consumers couldn’t discover the merchandise they preferred.”

Semiconductor battle

Cox has projected 2021 US profits of 14.9 million, up 2.5 % from the 2020 stage but substantially underneath the five-calendar year common. The consultancy has pointed to solid demand but anemic inventories, saying “demand is healthier but… you won’t be able to promote what you don’t have.”

A shortage in semiconductors has been a single of the emblematic source chain troubles of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Analysts have cited outsized demand for electronics as a factor, but automakers have also found materials of the ingredient influenced by closures at factories in Asia because of to Covid lockdowns or fires at producing web sites.

Amid other companies reporting sales, Honda scored an 8.9 % rise in US gross sales last yr to 1.5 million cars, and Hyundai won a 19 % maximize to 738,081 autos.

Although GM has acknowledged that low car inventories are a trouble, Main Government Mary Barra and other executives have touted potent car pricing, which has enabled it to stay successful even as profits sag.

GM’s inventories recovered relatively in the course of the quarter, finishing December at just under 200,000. That is about 55 per cent more than three months before, but less than half the stage of a yr ago.

“The key constraint for profits proceeds to be lessened stock degrees as a end result of the semiconductor shortage. All those inventory degrees are beginning to get well,” said GM Chief Economist Elaine Buckberg.

“Shoppers want to generate as significantly as right before the pandemic, primarily based on the latest superior concentrations of vehicle usage. Superior automobile use and deferred gross sales indicate pent-up need for new motor vehicles in the millions and making. That pent-up demand will assist sales as auto source enhances.”

The final tally for 2021 comes as US car giants double down on electric automobile investments. On Wednesday, Barra is scheduled to supply a virtual keynote speech at the Purchaser Electronics Present to unveil an electrical version of the Silverado.

In a assertion, Toyota pointed to $3 billion in new US investments targeting EV improvement, when Ford said Tuesday it will just about double manufacturing ability for the electrical version of its leading-providing F-150 pickup truck.

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© 2022 AFP