Written by / Ma Xiaolei
Editor/ Zhang Linyu
Design / Shi Yuchao
Source/New York Times By Neal E. Boudette
In 2021, Toyota sold a total of 2.3 million vehicles in the United States, an increase of more than 10%, successfully replacing GM as the highest-selling automaker in the United States and the first U.S. overseas manufacturer to achieve this feat in the nearly 120-year history of the automotive industry.
GM said on Jan. 4 that its 2021 U.S. sales fell 13 percent to 2.2 million units. Ford released sales figures on Jan. 5, ranking third.
It is during this turbulent, extraordinary year that automakers have to cope with the accelerated shift to electric vehicles and fight the shortage of COVID-19 and parts supply. Although demand for new cars has been strong, new car sales have been dampened by a severe shortage of chips, forcing auto factories to halt work.
GM, Ford and Stellantis, a carmaker formed by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot, all produced and sold less cars than expected in 2021 because they were hit hard by chip shortages.
Toyota, on the other hand, has not been so hard hit, and the company has more chips available because it has set aside more parts inventory after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan led to the suspension of several key components.
In addition to chip issues, the pandemic and related supply chain issues have also dampened sales, pushing up the prices of new and used cars, sometimes reaching all-time highs.
According to estimates by Cox Automotive, which tracks the industry, new car sales in the U.S. market will be just under 15 million in 2021. That's 2.5 percent more than in 2020, but well below the industry's 17 million vehicles in the year before the pandemic.
Beat native American manufacturers in the United States
"The dominance of U.S. automakers in the U.S. market is just over." Erik Gordon, a business professor at the University of Michigan who focuses on the automotive industry, said: "Toyota may not beat GM again in 2022, but they have done it, and it symbolizes a change in the industry. U.S. automakers can no longer rely on their American identity to take market share for granted. ”
The shortage of chips stemmed from the beginning of the outbreak, when auto plants around the world were shut down to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. At the same time, sales of computers and other consumer electronics began to take off. When automakers returned to work, they found fewer and fewer chips available.
Despite weak new car sales, automakers and dealers have made huge profits because they have been able to justifiably raise prices.
"Sales are down, but our margins are up and expenses are down," said Rick Ricart, whose family owns Ford, Hyundai, Kia and several other dealers near Columbus, Ohio. "We have almost no inventory costs right now. The vehicle was sold as soon as it arrived. They were sold within 24 to 48 hours. ”
Automakers are also grappling with the transition to electric vehicles. Many companies are spending tens of billions of dollars designing all-electric models and building factories. They are racing to catch up with Tesla, which currently accounts for most of the eviction market share.
Tesla still dominates the electric market
But most established automakers are unlikely to gain an edge in U.S. EV sales in 2022 because they don't have the capacity to produce tens of thousands of electric vehicles for at least the next year or two.
Tesla, founded in 2003, has not stagnated. Tesla's global sales have soared nearly 90 percent in 2021 to nearly 1 million units, with plans to begin mass production at two new plants near Austin, Texas, and Berlin in 2022. The company is less affected by chip shortages because it can switch to a more accessible type of chip.
While the electric car maker doesn't sell by country, Cox Motors estimates it sells more than 330,000 units in the U.S., or about the same number of vehicles Mercedes-Benz and BMW each sell here.
Ford is perhaps the only traditional automaker this year that could pose a serious competitive threat to Tesla. In the spring of 2021, Ford plans to start selling an electric version of its F-150 pickup, the F-150 Lightning, the best-selling vehicle in the United States.
The model has already received more than 200,000 orders and is expected to produce more than 50,000 units in 2022. It is adding capacity to a plant near Detroit, which plans to produce 80,000 units in 2023 and 150,000 units in 2024.
"The F-150 is the most important model for our company." Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford's Americas and International Markets Group, said in an interview. "The F-150 Lightning shows how seriously we take the electric vehicle market."
Ford has been selling a popular electric SUV, the Mustang Mach E, for nearly a year. The company said Jan. 4 that it aims to increase production of the Mach E to 200,000 units per year by 2023.
Other automakers plan to produce electric cars in relatively small numbers by 2022 because they and their suppliers are still preparing to build factories and produce batteries and other components.
GM has set a goal of producing only electric cars in the U.S. home market by 2035, and on Jan. 5, it unveiled a pure electric Chevrolet Silverado pickup at the Consumer Electronics Show, but the electric Silverado is not expected to be in production until 2023.
GM was forced to suspend production of its main electric vehicle, the Chevrolet Bolt, because manufacturing defects could have caught fire to the battery. In the last three months of 2021, the company sold only 25 Bolts.
Toyota's rise in the United States
The U.S. auto industry has long been dominated by GM, and after surpassing Ford in the late 1920s and early 1930s, GM occupied the top spot in the annual sales ranking for nearly a century.
Toyota began selling cars in the United States in 1965. In 1988, it began production at its first U.S. plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, building a reputation for quality amid the struggles of GM, Ford and Chrysler. Its growth has also sparked trade tensions between the United States and Japan and raised public fears that Japanese companies would weaken American companies.
Subsequently, Toyota expanded into the luxury car segment through the Lexus brand and added Toyota Tundra full-size pickups to compete in a field dominated by manufacturers based in and around Detroit. By the early 2000s, the Toyota Camry was usually the best-selling car in the United States, and the Japanese automaker quickly surpassed Chrysler and Ford in annual sales.
Its image was further enhanced when it launched the Prius Hybrid, as gasoline prices were rising at a time when consumers were paying more attention to fuel economy. The company still dominates sales of hybrid vehicles, combining gasoline engines with batteries and electric motors.
But Toyota has been slow to embrace pure electric vehicles, which could weaken its growth in the coming years. At an event in December, the company's president, Akio Toyoda, stood in front of a row of electric vehicle prototypes and outlined plans to significantly increase electric vehicle production by 2030.
But Toyota is now also battling supply chain issues. In recent months, the company has had to slow down production sharply around the world because it has run out of inventory and has had to wait for suppliers to produce more.