They are all saying that Japanese cars are no longer good, but in fact, Japanese cars are just not good in China, and their performance in the global market is still very eye-catching.
Last week, Toyota announced its financial report for fiscal year 2023, which showed that Toyota's turnover for the current fiscal year was 45.09 trillion yen, a year-on-year increase of 21.4%; Operating profit was 5.35 trillion yen, up 96.4% year-on-year, reaching a new record high. profit before tax was 6.97 trillion yen, up 89.8% year-on-year; Net profit was 4.94 trillion yen, up 101.7% year-on-year.
In terms of sales, Toyota's global sales in fiscal 2023 will be 11.09 million units, a year-on-year increase of 5%, of which Toyota's cumulative sales will be 9.443 million units, a year-on-year increase of 7%; Cumulative sales of electrified vehicles (including HEVs, PHEVs, BEVs, and FECVs) were 3.855 million units, up 35.3% year-on-year, accounting for 37.4% of the total (29.6% in FY2022).
Sales increased by only 5%, but net profit doubled, and Toyota can be described as "making money". Toyota said that the increase in operating profit was mainly due to the increase in sales of hybrid models, which simply means that hybrid models are more profitable for Toyota.
If it weren't for the unsatisfactory performance in the domestic market, Toyota's sales and profits would have been even higher. According to the data, in the first quarter of this year, Toyota's sales in China were 374,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 1.6%, while Toyota's sales in the global market were 2.401 million units, a year-on-year increase of 0.1%.
In April 2024, FAW Toyota's domestic sales were 49,033 units, a year-on-year decrease of 31.3%; GAC Toyota's domestic sales were 52,251 units, a year-on-year decrease of 32.1%, and sales showed a trend of "falling endlessly".
Compared with the decline in sales, the author believes that the decline in Toyota's domestic profits will actually be more serious; Once upon a time, almost all of Toyota's hot-selling models had no discounts at all, and some models even needed to increase their prices, not only Toyota China made a lot of money, but Toyota's dealers also ate a lot.
But with the continuous decline in sales, Toyota has to give a large market discount in order to maintain sales, not only Corolla, Lei Ling this kind of model lives by a larger discount, a new generation of Camry has just been listed and began to provide a discount of 1-20,000 yuan, and even Highlander, Saina This model that previously needed to increase the price now does not need to increase the price, and the discount margin is not small, all of this will affect Toyota's profits, but also affect the profits of Toyota dealers, compared with the situation in previous years, The situation of Toyota dealers can be described as "ice and fire".
What are Toyota's core competencies? The author believes that the vast majority of people's answers are fuel-efficient and stable, which is also the root of Toyota's sales in the era of fuel vehicles, the technical content is not particularly high, the configuration is not rich, and there is not even too much cost performance at all, but the cost of using the car is low, and it is not easy to break, even if there is a failure, the maintenance cost is not high, this is enough for consumers, after all, many years ago, many families buy cars to solve the problem first, and there is really not much to consider in terms of comfort configuration.
However, with the continuous improvement of users' demand for car purchases, as well as the continuous improvement of the comprehensive strength of independent brand models, consumers' car buying concepts have actually changed greatly, while meeting low cost and high stability, the pursuit of configuration, space or power is also getting higher and higher, which leads to Toyota's models have no advantages at all.
After entering the new energy era, whether it is a plug-in hybrid model or a pure electric model, the cost of daily charging has been lower than that of Japanese cars, and the fuel consumption of some independent brand plug-in hybrid models can also be at the same level as Japanese cars.
On the other hand, the price of self-owned brand plug-in hybrid sedans has been lowered to 79,800 yuan, and the price of pure electric vehicles is even about the same as the price of Japanese models of the same level, and there are advantages such as exemption from purchase tax and unlimited numbers, leaving the living space of Japanese cars to be lower and lower.
For Toyota, the next way is nothing more than two ways, one is to fight a price war, through a lower price to attract consumers, on the other hand, is to develop new energy, after all, its own hybrid technology is not bad, the derived plug-in hybrid technology is also competitive, as long as the cost can be controlled, no longer blind pricing, the market must have.
As for pure electric models, perhaps Toyota should start with the designer, whether it is bZ4X or bZ3, it is difficult to get consumer recognition at the design level, not to mention the three-electric technology, even if the latter uses the three-electric system from BYD, it is also rare to make a difference, resulting in a narrower and narrower road.
Perhaps there is not much time left for Toyota in the domestic market, and it will be interesting to see how Toyota plays its cards next.