Over the past year, the U.S. auto market has undergone new changes. General Motors (GM) sold a total of 2.203 million new vehicles, down nearly 13% year-over-year. Sales of the main model Chevrolet Sorod pickup truck decreased by 10.8% to less than 530,000 units; cadillac brand and GMC sales fell by 8.6% and 6.4% respectively.
You know, since the early 1930s, GM first surpassed Ford to become the largest sales car manufacturer in the United States, and has been at the top for 90 consecutive years. In its place is Toyota, which sold 2.33 million units last year, up about 10 percent year-over-year, and the first time a non-homegrown automaker has topped the list in the United States.
Some industry analysts pointed out that the production and sales of GM are obviously subject to chip shortages, compared with Toyota, which has better chip supply chain management. But the U.S. auto market sales champion next to the sunset company, not a chip shortage can be explained by one reason. In fact, this is the result of the decline in the competitiveness of US car companies for a long time.
From a global perspective, the competitiveness of American car companies is far less than that of Toyota and Volkswagen. In the first three quarters of last year, Toyota and Volkswagen sold 7.3757 million units and 6.2998 million units respectively; Hyundai Kia Group ranked among the top three in the world for the first time, with sales of 5.032 million units; GM ranked sixth with 4.5004 million units, with a significant gap.
And from the perspective of changes in the US market. In 2005, Toyota was still in fourth place, with GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler at the time in the top three, accounting for 57% of the total. But today, even counting Tesla, the total market share of major U.S. automakers is just over 40 percent.
Looking at the history of Toyota's development in the United States, it can be described as a counterattack. In the 1950s, the Toyopet Crown became the first Japanese car to be exported to the U.S. market, and they did a lot of localization designs, including warning lights when the door was not closed, fuel tank cover safety device, two-speed wiper, etc. However, contrary to expectations, problems such as small space and insufficient power were complained about by consumers, and only 287 vehicles were sold in the end.
In the throes of pain, Toyota upgraded the size of the second-generation Crown vehicle and drew on some classic design elements of American cars. At the same time, it also launched corona specifically for the US market, selling 3,000 units in the year of its launch. Corolla, which went public immediately after that, was equally successful.
More and more consumers are becoming aware of its reliable quality, and sales are rising. In 1986, Toyota's sales in the U.S. market exceeded 1 million for the first time. Three years later, the customer base was further expanded by introducing the high-end car brand "Lexus".
Since building their first independent plant in Kentucky in the mid-1980s, after more than 30 years of hard work, they have set up 10 plants in the United States, including five vehicle plants. In February last year, with the rollout of a new Sienna plant in Princeton, Indiana, Toyota's cumulative vehicle production in the United States officially exceeded the 30 million unit mark.
In addition to Toyota, other Japanese cars also have a good performance in the US market. In the past year, Honda sold 1.46 million units and Nissan sold 970,000 units, both up 9% year-on-year. Together with Subaru, Mazda and Mitsubishi Motors, the total sales of the six Japanese car companies increased by 9% year-on-year to 5.79 million units, accounting for more than one-third.
The data shows that last year, U.S. car sales were close to 15 million units, up slightly year-on-year. However, compared with the five-year average of 17.3 million vehicles in 2015-2019, the decline is huge. Toyota expects sales in the U.S. market to jump to 16.5 million units in 2022, with sales exceeding 2.4 million. Whether we can keep the first throne, we will continue to pay attention.