The earthquake shattered Japanese auto maker Toyota’s position as “big boss”

As the so-called "house leaking in the rain," Toyota Motor, which has just emerged from the eviction of the "return door," has unveiled a ten-year development plan "foreseeing the global 2020". It did not expect two days later. On March 11th, Japan experienced a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, which not only caused serious casualties, but also severed the Japanese auto industry.

According to reports from Japanese media, after the earthquake, there were 22 factories of Toyota, Honda, and Nissan, three Japanese automakers, shut down. Among them, Toyota's Central Motor Corporation located in Daheng Village, Miyagi Prefecture, and Kanto Automobile Co., Ltd. located in Kanazaki-cho, Iwate Prefecture, have been unable to use the plant and the production line because of serious losses. In addition, Toyota also closed the Prius [review picture forum] and the Lexus assembly plant.

“As a top priority, the current top priority is safety.” Toyota spokesperson Kunimoto Kyusuke said that the company will re-evaluate the loss and supply chain status in the near future and formulate a plan to restart production in an attempt to reduce the damage in the affected areas. To the lowest. It is estimated that Toyota lost more than US$73 million per day due to stop production, while Honda, Nissan, and Suzuki lost more than US$25 million each.

On March 22, Toyota announced once again that the period for restarting the entire vehicle plant will be postponed until March 26. Analysts believe that even if these Japanese factories can resume production as planned as soon as possible, the power plant in Japan, which is highly dependent on electricity, will still be affected because of the pressure on Japanese power supply due to the damage of nuclear power plants. It can be said that this grim situation will be difficult to eliminate in the future for a long time. As Japan is the world's leading auto exporter, the earthquake will affect the logistics sector and the pace of Japanese auto exports will slow down in the short term. At present, the Japanese imported cars on the Chinese market have already risen in price overall, while models such as the Prius, Corolla, and Lexus have also been affected.

In Toyota's "Global Vision 2020" plan, Toyoda announced that it intends to boost sales and profitability in terms of product, brand, and regional sales strategy. Specifically, more than 10 new hybrid vehicles will be launched before 2015, focusing on promoting the development and development of Lexus brand business and shifting its focus to emerging markets. "The Chinese market will become the top priority for the development of traction companies. It is estimated that by 2015, the proportion of the Chinese market in Toyota's global sales will rise to 15%."

In his interpretation of the 10-year plan, Toyota’s Minister of China Sasaki Satoaki stated that Toyota’s sales volume in the Chinese market will increase from sales of 800,000 units in 2010 to 1.5 million units in 2015, which means Toyota’s annual average in the Chinese market over the next five years. The increase must be maintained at least 13%. "On this basis, I myself, as China's minister, hopes to reach a level of 1.6 million to 1.8 million vehicles."

In 2010, Toyota Motor Corporation sold 850,000 vehicles in the Chinese market, which means Toyota’s sales in China will double in the next five years. Whether or not this goal will be achieved will affect Toyota’s ability to successfully maintain the position of the “boss” of global car companies. In 2010, Toyota's global sales increased 7.7% year-on-year to 8.418 million vehicles, while GM's sales of 8.389 million vehicles were lost, only 30,000 less than Toyota. Previously, people in the industry generally predicted that taking into account China's status in the global automobile increase, GM is likely to regain the position of "boss" from Toyota this year.

At the same time, the 2010 annual financial report released by Volkswagen recently showed that Volkswagen’s sales exceeded the 7 million mark for the first time in 2010, reaching 7.2 million units, a year-on-year increase of 13.7% compared to 6.33 million units in 2009. The market share further increased. In addition, the Volkswagen Group's profitability indicators have far surpassed Toyota and GM and have become a veritable "boss."

"Fortunately, Toyota's share of overseas production has been increasing over the past five years, and the proportion of Japan's domestic production has been decreasing." Industry insiders analyzed that of Toyota's global production of 762 million vehicles, only 3.28 million were produced in 2010. From Japan, another 4.34 million come from its overseas factories. “After the earthquake, the yen continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar. For Japanese auto companies that rely heavily on exports, this will greatly squeeze their profit margins. It is not difficult to predict that the future will include Japanese car companies including Toyota. It will be possible to further reduce Japan's domestic production and increase the proportion of overseas production and localization."