Toyota’s Output Makes Like a Yo-Yo in October

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy

Just about every single automaker on the planet has been plagued by production disruptions and supply chain headaches, leading to lots that were deader than disco on occasion and bereft of product to sell. At Toyota, production numbers are up compared to this time last year – but down from the month prior.


Whilst some outlets may breathlessly and blindly report that Toyota exceeded targets and saw a 23 percent production increase in October this year, it is important to know that percentage is compared to the terrifyingly low numbers of October 2021 when things were very bleak for the Big T. As for exceeding targets, it’s worth noting that said targets are Toyota’s own ambitions, ones which were revised downward prior to the release of today’s numbers.


In October, Toyota built 771,382 vehicles globally, beating its internal estimate of three-quarters of a million units. Drilling a bit further, that number was divided into 203,149 in Japan (up 33.7 percent and 568,233 outside Japan (up 19.5 percent). Subsidiaries Daihatsu and Hino contributed extra units, for those interested in those two brands rarely seen in our country. Even though worldwide production is up for the third consecutive month in terms of year-over-year increase, it was down from the more than 887,000 vehicles produced in September.


Still, the brand is selling every vehicle it can produce. Worldwide sales of Toyota vehicles through the first 10 months of this year total just shy of 8 million units (7,931,178 for all you pedants who like to be exact). This compares with worldwide Toyota production of a hair under 7.5 million units during the same timeframe from New Year’s to Halloween. Automotive News is reporting that Toyota figures they will produce 9.2 million units in total this fiscal year, which ends March 2023 for some ungodly reason. That’s up about a half-mil from last annum.


Here at home, Toyota and Lexus combined sales through the first three quarters of this year are down 15.4 percent, sitting just south of 1.6 million units. It’ll surprise no one the biggest individual seller is the RAV4, finding 303,341 new homes so far in 2022, down from 313,447 same time last year. That model is followed by the Camry and Corolla, then closely by the Highlander. In fact, every single model is off the pace compared to last year, save for the newly introduced Tundra which has added 14.6 percent to its volume in the first 10 months of 2022. 


Statistically speaking, the GR86 is up over 800 percent as well but that’s down to a switchover from the Gen1 to the Gen2 car. We won’t knock it – the GR86 remains one of the most entertaining cars we’ve driven this year.


[Image: Toyota]


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Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

More by Matthew Guy

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  • MaintenanceCosts MaintenanceCosts on Nov 30, 2022

    Still can't get a RAV4 Prime for love or money. Availability of normal hybrid RAV4s and Highlanders is only slightly better. At least around here I think Toyota could sell twice the number of vehicles that they are actually bringing in at the moment.

  • Analoggrotto Analoggrotto on Nov 30, 2022

    Wow, that's crazy high praise for the GR86.

  • W Conrad I'm not afraid of them, but they aren't needed for everyone or everywhere. Long haul and highway driving sure, but in the city, nope.
  • Jalop1991 In a manner similar to PHEV being the correct answer, I declare RPVs to be the correct answer here.We're doing it with certain aircraft; why not with cars on the ground, using hardware and tools like Telsa's "FSD" or GM's "SuperCruise" as the base?Take the local Uber driver out of the car, and put him in a professional centralized environment from where he drives me around. The system and the individual car can have awareness as well as gates, but he's responsible for the driving.Put the tech into my car, and let me buy it as needed. I need someone else to drive me home; hit the button and voila, I've hired a driver for the moment. I don't want to drive 11 hours to my vacation spot; hire the remote pilot for that. When I get there, I have my car and he's still at his normal location, piloting cars for other people.The system would allow for driver rest period, like what's required for truckers, so I might end up with multiple people driving me to the coast. I don't care. And they don't have to be physically with me, therefore they can be way cheaper.Charge taxi-type per-mile rates. For long drives, offer per-trip rates. Offer subscriptions, including miles/hours. Whatever.(And for grins, dress the remote pilots all as Johnnie.)Start this out with big rigs. Take the trucker away from the long haul driving, and let him be there for emergencies and the short haul parts of the trip.And in a manner similar to PHEVs being discredited, I fully expect to be razzed for this brilliant idea (not unlike how Alan Kay wasn't recognized until many many years later for his Dynabook vision).
  • B-BodyBuick84 Not afraid of AV's as I highly doubt they will ever be %100 viable for our roads. Stop-and-go downtown city or rush hour highway traffic? I can see that, but otherwise there's simply too many variables. Bad weather conditions, faded road lines or markings, reflective surfaces with glare, etc. There's also the issue of cultural norms. About a decade ago there was actually an online test called 'The Morality Machine' one could do online where you were in control of an AV and choose what action to take when a crash was inevitable. I think something like 2.5 million people across the world participated? For example, do you hit and most likely kill the elderly couple strolling across the crosswalk or crash the vehicle into a cement barrier and almost certainly cause the death of the vehicle occupants? What if it's a parent and child? In N. America 98% of people choose to hit the elderly couple and save themselves while in Asia, the exact opposite happened where 98% choose to hit the parent and child. Why? Cultural differences. Asia puts a lot of emphasis on respecting their elderly while N. America has a culture of 'save/ protect the children'. Are these AV's going to respect that culture? Is a VW Jetta or Buick Envision AV going to have different programming depending on whether it's sold in Canada or Taiwan? how's that going to effect legislation and legal battles when a crash inevitibly does happen? These are the true barriers to mass AV adoption, and in the 10 years since that test came out, there has been zero answers or progress on this matter. So no, I'm not afraid of AV's simply because with the exception of a few specific situations, most avenues are going to prove to be a dead-end for automakers.
  • Mike Bradley Autonomous cars were developed in Silicon Valley. For new products there, the standard business plan is to put a barely-functioning product on the market right away and wait for the early-adopter customers to find the flaws. That's exactly what's happened. Detroit's plan is pretty much the opposite, but Detroit isn't developing this product. That's why dealers, for instance, haven't been trained in the cars.
  • Dartman https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-fighter-jets-air-force-6a1100c96a73ca9b7f41cbd6a2753fdaAutonomous/Ai is here now. The question is implementation and acceptance.
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