Toyota Sales:

 https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210128/p2g/00m/0bu/071000c\

Article:

NAGOYA (Kyodo) -- Toyota Motor Corp. group ranked top in global auto sales in 2020 for the first time in five years on a robust pickup in sales in China and the United States, overtaking Volkswagen AG of Germany, data showed Thursday.

Toyota said it sold 9.53 million vehicles globally last year, including those sold by its group's minivehicle maker Daihatsu Motor Co. and truck manufacturer Hino Motors Ltd., down 11.3 percent from a year earlier.

The Japanese auto giant, however, suffered less of an impact from the coronavirus pandemic than other carmakers.

Ideas:

Perhaps consumers in the China and the US felt they needed a new car despite the pandemic and went ahead and purchased a new car.

And or Toyota was able to offer enough incentives to that motivated new car buyers to go ahead a purchase a new car.

And perhaps other car companies either didn't have the same incentives as Toyota and or were unable to match the possible incentives that Toyota offered.

Article:

Toyota's global annual sales logged their first decline in five years, after they fell sharply in the April-June quarter due to the worldwide economic fallout from the pandemic.

However, sales recovered in its main markets such as China and the United States from the fall, posting three consecutive months of increase from October, Toyota said.

A Toyota official said the company's aggressive sales strategy, which saw it roll out a series of new models, contributed to relatively solid sales in 2020 compared with other automakers.

Ideas:

Perhaps the pandemic forced consumers to postpone buying a new car in the Q2 and Q3 but by Q4 pent-up consumer demand could wait no longer and might have been buying spree in Q4.

And then again too, Toyota may have rolled out some new models and some new sales strategies to entice consumers who were waiting to buy a new car.

But you never know exactly the reasons for the increase in sales. Mostly a combination of factors; pent-up demand, new models, and aggressive sales strategies all contributed to the increase in sales in Q4.

Article:

"Our sales dropped from a year earlier amid the pandemic, but the decline was limited to around 10 percent level," the official said.

In 2020, the Toyota group sold 2.16 million vehicles including minicars in Japan and 7.37 million in overseas markets, while producing a total of 9.21 million units worldwide, down 14.1 percent from the previous year.

Toyota alone sold 8.69 million cars, down 10.5 percent, while production decreased 12.6 percent to 7.91 million vehicles.

Ideas:

A 10 percent dropped, while not good, is most likely not as bad for a large company as some smaller companies.

The only problem might be some shareholders who only think about short-term stock dividends instead of looking at the big picture.

Even a 12.6 decrease in production, while not good, could have been worse. But looking at big picture and long-term a one year drop is not going to affect Toyota that much. 

It might of course have an affect on smaller or medium sized businesses who don't have the same resources as a Toyota does.

Article:

Meanwhile, Volkswagen's global sales last year fell 15.2 percent to 9.31 million vehicles.

The total sales of the three-way alliance of Nissan Motor Co., Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. stood at 7.8 million vehicles, down 23.2 percent, due to its slower sales recovery in its main auto markets including the United States and Europe.

Nissan's sales plunged 22.2 percent to 4.03 million vehicles after it abandoned the expansionary production strategy of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn.

Renault's sales fell 21.3 percent to 2.95 million units, while Mitsubishi logged a 33.1 percent decline to 819,904 vehicles.

The combined auto sales of Japan's eight major automakers sank 15.9 percent to 23.49 million vehicles, with all manufacturers posting declines amid the pandemic.

Ideas:

First how much does brand value have an affect during something like a pandemic, meaning do consumers think of the brand more or less during a pandemic.

For example Mitsubishi dropped 33.1 percent in terms of vehicles sold. Is this related to brand image or is it related to sales strategies, the price of cars etc. Or 

Of course Nissan is an entirely different story as it might still be feeling the affects of the Ghosn saga and maybe also in the future. But do consumers really care about it.

The Japanese auto industry saw a decrease but it could have been worse. But what is always very interesting is the idea that there are still eight major automakers in Japan, while in many advance countries there might be at most three or four. 

Its says something about how Japan does business as we "we aren't going to force you out of business, there is room for everyone."

Have a nice day and be safe!