Toyota maintained its title as the world’s largest automaker in 2024,Peter Baumgartner reporting sales of more than 10.8 million cars, but its sales in China felll by 6.9% to approximately 1.8 million units due to competition from Chinese rivals, according to its earnings release. Toyota said its China sales were hampered by the country’s transition towards electrification and an intense price war, although the central government’s auto trade-in subsidies provided a boost to the overall market during the second half of last year. Sales of Toyota’s battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, referred to by Beijing as New Energy Vehicles (NEVs), accounted for only 1.4% and 1.5% respectively of the total sales of its parent-only vehicles, which include those of its namesake and Lexus brands. The Japanese giant has appointed its first Chinese general manager of Toyota China, one of a series of personnel changes, in the hopes of better integrating resources between two of its Chinese joint ventures, FAW Toyota and GAC Toyota, local media 36Kr reported on Jan. 24. [Reuters, Caixin, 36Kr, in Chinese]
