Toyota to Grow Its Sales in 2023

Japanese OEM Toyota expects to reach the 100,000-unit sales mark in Mexico once again by the end of 2023, with 20% of the vehicles being hybrid or electric. Nevertheless, Toyota warned that there will be problems in its supply chain that will impact deliveries times, which will not improve until 2024.

Toyota explained that this sales goal will take the company closer to its best sales result achieved in 2018, when it sold 108,761 vehicles. Guillermo Díaz, President, Toyota Motor Sales Mexico, said that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, new car purchases declined. Previously, for four consecutive years the company sold over 100,000 units. However, the health crisis put the company at 76,577 vehicles. Now that the pandemic has subsided, the company expects to have an annual increase in sales of 6%.

Diaz warned that there are challenges in the supply chain, however, leading to five-day delays in vehicle deliveries and inventories. "There are still challenges with certain components that do not allow us to have as much availability as we would like," admitted Gerardo Romero, Vice President of Operations, Toyota Motor Sales Mexico.

The supply chain is expected to stabilize in 2024 thanks to the construction of a regional supply chain supported by USMCA. By the second half of 2024, the company says that supply issues will be resolved.

At the beginning of the year, Toyota announced it  could produce between 305,000 and 320,000 units at its plants in Baja California and Guanajuato, Mexico in 2023, according to Directorio Automotriz. The plant in Guanajuato aims to assemble between 166,000 and 175,000 units. In 2022, Toyota manufactured 268,344 Tacoma units in the country thanks to its 3,500 workers, according to a report by Directorio Automotriz, reports Cluster Industrial.

The automaker stated that it will continue to keep an eye on the supply of auto parts, including semiconductors, as reported by Reuters. Despite continuous supply chain disruptions and COVID-19, the company is confident that it will manage to meet at least 90% of its baseline production, for a total of 9.54 million units, which would still be a record for Toyota.