• 2021 is Toyota’s second highest sales record in the company’s 84-year history
• Chip shortage caused sporadic stop in production, but overall impact negligible
• Sales of hybrids grew 30 percent worldwide, 50 percent in China, 73 percent in USA

Despite the ongoing semiconductor chips shortage, Toyota ended 2021 by setting its second highest sales record in its 84-year history.

The exact number of vehicles sold will be revealed later this month, but it will most likely be a low key announcement, buried within some investor’s report due to political sensitivity of it becoming the No.1 selling car brand in USA – it’s most important market, contributing 25 percent of its global sales.

In fact, WapCar only learned about Toyota’s record-ending year after listening to President Akio Toyoda’s very low key New Year greeting message to Toyota staffs around the world, presented on 8-Jan 2022.

President Akio Toyoda said:

“It’s hard to believe it’s been 2 years since the pandemic began… but all of you continue to amaze me with your never-ending ability to adapt.

“Perhaps that’s why, despite the continued challenges… 2021 will go on record as the 2nd highest global sales year in our history! How awesome is that?!

“Each one of you must take your share of the credit for this achievement, and this includes our entire Toyota family…. from the sales regions… to the dealerships… to our manufacturing plants… to our suppliers.

“It also includes our designers and engineers who were responsible for all the new products and technologies that we were able to share with the world last year.

“I honestly can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of all of you and how excited I am about our future.”

We’ve checked with our contacts at Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan, who confirmed that yes, 2021 was indeed Toyota’s second best-year ever, but with regards to the specific number achieved, we were told that it will be revealed ‘soon.’

Toyota’s last highest sales record was set in 2019, just before Covid-19 hit, with 9,714,253 units (Toyota plus Lexus). Including Daihatsu and Hino, the Toyota Motor group’s total was 10,742,212 units.

Its next highest record was set in 2018, with 9,541,748 units for Toyota and Lexus, 10,593,698 units with Daihatsu and Hino added.

As of November 2021, Toyota and Lexus’ combined figures stood at 8,763,916 units, and 9,562,288 units with Daihatsu and Hino.

Last year, Toyota sold 2.3 million vehicles in USA alone, up 10.4 percent from the year before, while the incumbent General Motors saw sales declining 12.9 percent to 2.2 million, mostly due to chip supply issue, as well as GM’s decision to exit the shrinking sedan market.

Sales of sedans might be declining overall, but Toyota has shown that the Corolla and Camry can still capture healthy sales as competitors exit the segment.

It’s the first time in 90 years that GM lost its No.1 position in its home market, and could potentially be a political hot topic for more conservative parts of the very politically-divided USA.

Aware of the sensitivity of Toyota unseating GM from the No.1 position in USA, Toyota’s carefully worded press statement for the American media started by emphasing that Toyota’s sales had declined 30.2 percent for the month of December.

In a conference call to investors, Jack Hollis, Senior Vice President of Automotive Operations again downplayed the overtaking of GM, calling it unsustainable, and never a goal of Toyota.

“We ended 2021 with sales of 2.332 million vehicles in the U.S., up 10%. Which will give us an estimated mid fifteen percent of the market.

“Now before I go on, let me address the elephant in this room. Yes, we did surpass General Motors in sales this year. But to be clear, that is not our goal, nor do we see it as sustainable.

‘Now much of it had to do with inventory and that was a result of the great work of our manufacturing teams, suppliers, vehicle logistics centers and our purchasing department. Their efforts have been vital since the start of the pandemic to help meet the mobility needs of our customers and that is exactly what’s most important to us all about our customers and our electrification efforts.”

Of greater interest is how Toyota’s leadership in hybrids is paying off. The company has been criticised by many EV fans and Wall Street-type folks for its over-emphasis on hybrids and late-entry in battery electric vehicles but the numbers show that the company’s timing is spot on.

Toyota bZ4X, its first dedicated BEV model, co-developed with Subaru, will only go on sale in the middle of this year.

Also read: Checkmate? Toyota to sell 3.5 million EVs by 2030, unveils 16 models, 14 more coming - world's largest EV player?

While Wall Street traders and venture capitalists will buy into Tesla’s grandiose story of impressive valuation, Toyota is proving that not-as-cool hybrids are where the real demand lies.

Sales of electrified vehicles, majority of it are regular (unplugged) hybrids, grew a massive 73.2 percent in USA in 2021, reaching 583,697 units, contributing 25 percent of Toyota Motor North America’s total sales of 2,332,262 vehicles.

In China, Toyota’s second biggest market contributing 20 percent of its global sales, it hit its highest ever sales record of 1.94 million units, up 8.2 percent from last year. The boost came from hybrids, whose sales had jumped by 50 percent to reach 475,900 units. Like USA, one in every four new Toyota model sold there is a hybrid.

Globally, sales of Toyota and Lexus hybrids grew by 30 percent. As of November 2021, year-to-date sales of Toyota and Lexus hybrids stood at 2,263,588 units. Including plug-in hybrids, fuel cells, and BEVs, sales of Toyota and Lexus electrified vehicles hit 2,392,010 units, up by 37 percent.

As mentioned earlier, Toyota will only announce its total 2021 figures by the end of this month.

The chip supply shortage also affected Toyota less than many other manufacturers, because Toyota was one of the few companies to learn from 2011’s twin disasters - tsunami in Japan and the great flood in Thailand, both of which nearly crippled Toyota’s supply chain then.

While other companies treated natural disasters as an unfortunate ‘act of God’ and moved on, Toyota went on a hardcore ‘kaizen’ exercise, tracing the long tail of supply chains to make sure such an incident will never cripple the company again.

The benefits of its kaizen exercise are now paying off as manufacturers scramble to source sufficient semiconductor parts post-pandemic economic recovery, while Toyota is treating the issue like a mosquito bite – irritating but not serious.

Exactly how Toyota managed to minimize the impact of the chip supply shortage has been explained here.