Toyota 2014 Sales Rise 6.2%, December Deliveries Up
Strong light-truck demand, led by record annual volume for the RAV4 CUV, propelled Toyota’s U.S. sales upward last year.
January 5, 2015
Toyota sold 2.37 million units in the U.S. in 2014, a 6.2% increase over 2013’s 2.24 million and the best tally for the No.1 Japanese automaker in seven years.
“In many respects, our results reflected industry trends, as light trucks accounted for much of the gains,” Bill Fay, Toyota Div. group vice president, tells media today on a conference call.
The Toyota brand had a record year for CUV and SUV sales, with the RAV4 CUV selling an all-time high 267,698 units, up 22.7% from 2013.
The larger Highlander CUV had its best year, with 146,127 delivered in 2014.
Toyota’s Camry again was the No.1-selling car in the U.S. Its 2014 tally of 428,606 overtook the Honda Accord by 40,000 units.
Toyota also scored another win against Honda, with the Corolla surpassing the Civic, the latter the longtime best-selling compact car in the U.S.
The Corolla tallied 339,498 sales in 2014 compared with the Civic’s 325,981.
Toyota’s Avalon large sedan led its segment in 2014, Fay says, despite Avalon sales slipping 5.4% for the year.
Capping an underwhelming year, as gas prices nosedived and the core liftback model turned 5 years old, sales of the Prius hybrid lineup fell 11.5% in 2014 to 207,372 units. The liftback lost the most volume of all Prius variants, down 15.4% for the year, but the V wagon, C subcompact and plug-in models also were in the red.
As expected, the Lexus luxury brand topped 300,000 deliveries for the first time in seven years, selling 311,389 units, up 13.7%.
The RX CUV again was Lexus’ best-seller, and Jeff Bracken, group vice president for Lexus, says its 107,490 units sold may make it the best-selling luxury model in the U.S. when all results are tallied.
At Scion, 2014 was a year to forget, as sales slipped below 60,000, to 58,009 units, down 15.1% from 2013.
For December, Toyota, Lexus and Scion sales rose 8.4% on a daily-selling-rate basis, to 215,057 units.
The Toyota RAV4 and Highlander set records for December volume, with the RAV4 selling 22,997 units and the Highlander 15,019.
The Corolla had a blockbuster December, with 30,125 sold, up 33.5% from December 2013.
Lexus set a record for any month, with 39,879 units sold, up 14.7% from 2013. Bracken credits the new RC coupe and NX CUV for aiding December deliveries.
Lexus sold 1,042 RCs last month and 2,905 NXs.
Scion sales fell 15.1% on a DSR basis in December, although the xB did see a rare increase, up 10.5% daily.
Toyota is calling for 16.7 million industry light-vehicle sales in the U.S. in 2015, and expects another year of growth thanks to increasing consumer confidence, the need to replace aged vehicles in driveways across the U.S., and still-low interest rates.
“We’re building a little bit of anticipation in the second half of the year (that) rates might go up, but (they’re) still very low by historical standards,” Fay says.
Toyota will try to correct an imbalance in inventory in the early part of the year, as it seeks more light trucks and fewer cars.
The Tacoma midsize pickup (a new generation will be shown next week at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit) is low on days’ supply, as is the Highlander. Fay says Toyota has plans to boost stock of both in the first quarter.
Fay also reveals Toyota and Scion together will launch eight new or refreshed models in the U.S. this year, and Lexus four.
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