Toyota and Lexus sellers are banking on pent-up demand and higher new automobile availability to help an enchancment in new-vehicle gross sales in 2023, regardless of greater rates of interest and different worries in regards to the U.S. financial system.
“At the very least for us, the demand continues to be there,” Supplier Steve Gates, 2023 chairman of the Toyota Nationwide Supplier Council, tells Wards.
In a separate briefing to announce 2022 outcomes, Toyota Motor North America executives provide related sentiments in regards to the U.S. market basically, whereas avoiding a exact forecast for U.S. Toyota and Lexus gross sales in 2023.
Jack Hollis (pictured, left), Toyota’s government vice chairman of gross sales, predicts U.S. light-vehicle gross sales of round 15 million in 2023. “The 2023 uptick is just not as excessive as we might find it irresistible to be, however an uptick,” he says.
U.S. light-vehicle gross sales for 2022 are round 13.7 million, down 8.2% vs. 2021, in line with the Nationwide Vehicle Sellers Assn.
“Demand continues to be higher than our provide,” Hollis says. “What’s completely different now’s extra stability,” that means a “gradual however regular” improve in stock. “That alone will get us near the 15 million mark this yr,” for the entire trade, he provides.
Toyota Motor North America experiences 2022 U.S. light-vehicle gross sales of two,108,458 for Toyota and Lexus mixed, down 9.6% vs. 2021, despite the fact that its December gross sales are up 3.5%, primarily because of higher availability. The Toyota model delivered 1,849,754 models, led by RAV4 with 399,941 gross sales, whereas Lexus fashions chipped in 258,704 deliveries with the RX topping its chart with 96,041 gross sales, Wards Intelligence knowledge exhibits.
Gates says that for the reason that pandemic, his Toyota and Lexus stock has been zero or near it on the finish of most months. “It’s grow to be kind of some extent of delight,” he says.
Gates owns Gates Auto Household, Richmond, Ky. The group has 11 new-car shops in Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana, together with three Toyota dealerships and a Lexus retailer, plus Audi, Chevrolet-Buick-GMC, Ford-Lincoln, Honda, Hyundai, Kia and Nissan dealerships.
He says Toyota South, a dealership in Richmond, Ky., completed 2022 with simply seven new automobiles in inventory — and all however “a pair” of these have been pre-sold. Earlier than the pandemic, that might most likely have been a minimum of 100 automobiles, with a lot fewer pre-sold, he says.
“We have now sufficient orders, most likely, we may function for half a yr, simply caring for the ordered automobiles we have already got,” he says.