Toyota China sales in April down 10.7% y/y

Shanghai, May 14 (Gasgoo.com) While many global automakers were celebrating their growth in the rebounding Chinese market, the world's largest carmaker Toyota Motor saw its China sales in April down 10.7%, Gasgoo.com said today.

Toyota said its China sales in April fell 10.7% from a year earlier. Last month, its joint venture FAW Toyota sold 30,265 vehicles, down 12.1% year on year (y/y), while another Chinese venture Guangzhou Toyota sold 14,112 units, down 7.4% y/y. This sliding performance is in sharp contrast with the sales surge of the Chinese auto market in that month. 

China sold 1.153 million vehicles in April, a rise of 25% y/y, including 831,000 sedans, minivans and other passenger vehicles, whose sales together rose 37.37%, the most in three years. Shanghai VW, FAW VW, Shanghai GM and Beijing Hyundai each saw their April sales rise to 50,000 cars, with the sales of Shanghai VW exceeding 60,000 units.

General Motors' China sales rose 50% in April from a year earlier to 151,084 units, boosted by brisk sales of its smaller vehicles. Sales at Ford Motor's passenger auto joint venture Changan Ford Mazda grew 33% y/y in April to 25,882 units. Audi's China sales surged 21% y/y in April to 12,156 units, a monthly record for the company.

Toyota Motor Corp. has hit a pothole in China, where the Japanese car gian’t failure to anticipate booming demand for small cars is depressing its sales as rivals like GM and VW reap bumper sales gains.

The sales slump is a blow to the world's biggest auto maker because China is the only major global auto market still growing. The problem adds to weakness in other markets for Toyota, which reported its worst annual loss since its 1937 founding.

Toyota's China sales in the first quarter of 2009 fell 17% from a year earlier to 125,743 vehicles, even as the total Chinese market, fueled by rising demand for small cars, grew 4% to 2.7 million vehicles.

Learning from the lesson, Toyota is scrambling to boost output of 1.6-liter engines for the Corolla lineup by about 65% at its plant in Tianjin.