Global Toyota Sales Recovering Faster Than Expected
Toyota reported its global sales in August were down just 10.6 percent from the previous year, in large part because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a promising figure compared to past months and the automaker says sales are recovering at a faster pace than expected.
Toyota was one of many automakers to report double-digit sales losses when the pandemic reached its full swing and manufacturing facilities closed. Recovery began after April. Global Toyota sales were down 16 percent in June, 12 percent in July, and 10.6 percent in August, showing a clear trend back to normality.
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The Japanese manufacturer projects that global sales from October to December will be down by only five percent, and will continue growing from there.
“Sales are expected to reach the prior year’s level for the same period around the end of this year to the beginning of next year,” Toyota said in a press release, adding that it expects the first three months of 2021 to come with a slight sales increase rather than a decline.
It should be noted that Toyota’s path to global sales recovery has been helped tremendously by strong performances in China, where the automaker reported a year-on-year sales increase of 27.2 percent. This would be a massive boost in any year, let alone one marked by a global pandemic.
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Meanwhile, in North America, Toyota is still feeling the effects of COVID-19 quite sharply. Sales have not been as clearly recovering as they have elsewhere. There was an upward climbing from April to June, but the recovery stopped there, with sales trending down again in July and even more in August.
It will be a few days before we get a look at Toyota’s September sales figures, but they will probably follow a similar trend. It doesn’t help that the COVID-19 situation has not been productively addressed in the United States like it has been in many other countries around the world. For example, in Canada, where the pandemic was taken more seriously, sales stayed very low through June as they probably ought to have been, and have now almost entirely recovered already. America could learn from its neighbors.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.