Due to the sharp decline in sales due to the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday and the decline in sales in Japan after the safety testing scandal in its small car division, Toyota's global sales volume in February fell 7% from the same period last year.
The Zhitong Finance App notes that due to the sharp decline in sales due to the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday and the decline in sales in Japan after the safety testing scandal in its small car division, Toyota's global sales volume in February fell 7% compared to the same period last year.
Nearly two-fifths of the cars sold by the world's largest automaker in February were oil-electric hybrids. Global sales data includes cars sold by the Toyota brand and its luxury brand Lexus.
As the world's largest automobile market, sales in China fell 36%. The reason is that the week-long Lunar New Year holiday was in February, compared to January last year.
Toyota's sales volume in Indonesia and Thailand also experienced a double-digit decline.
Toyota said that fierce competition in the Chinese automobile market affected sales.
However, according to data from an automobile industry association, the decline in car sales in China in January and February was much smaller, only 0.7%, but still lower than the 6.4% increase in passenger car sales in the entire industry.
Toyota's sales in the US and Europe increased 16% and 14% respectively in February, but sales in Japan fell by one-third.
Domestic sales in Japan were affected by the discontinuation of production by Daihatsu, and the scandal affected Toyota's reputation, although Daihatsu brand cars were not included in Toyota's global sales. The small car company said about a year ago that it cheated in crash safety tests.
According to another data from Daihatsu, the company's global sales volume plummeted 66% in February.