Japanese Scandal, Chinese Price War See Toyota's Output Slump

Toyota sees its global production decline for the fifth month in a row, hit by its domestic safety certification scandal in Japan and fierce price-cutting in the Chinese market.

The automaker’s published figures for January to June 2024 show worldwide output slumped 12.9% to 795,862 vehicles, the sharpest decline since December 2022.

In Japan output plunged 18.8% after the transport ministry found irregularities in applications by Toyota and other automakers to certify certain models in a widening of an auto safety scandal, Reuters reports.

In China, state-subsidized domestic battery-electric-vehicle makers rapidly gained market share and have aggressively cut prices. Here Toyota’s production fell 21.7%. Production in North America fell 6.2% while in Europe it dropped 6.6% due to fewer production days compared to last year.

During the first six months of this year, the automaker's global production fell 5% while worldwide sales dipped 0.9%.