Six Fun Facts from the Toyota Media Round Table
We sit down with Toyota’s top brass to discuss the state of the Middle East Market
Imthishan Giado
Here’s a quick roundup of the highlights from the Toyota Media Roundtable I attended this morning, hosted by Chief Representative for the Middle East and North Africa, Nobuyuki Negishi.
1) 2013 was a very good year for Toyota. How good? Globally, sales rose by 13% to hit 8.9 million units – a new sales record. Japan is down – and with plans for a new consumption tax on the horizon, unlikely to rise in the near future – but nearly every market is doing well, with the USA seeing a 7% increase, Latin America a sizeable 22% and China recording 9% growth.
2) The Middle East Is A Big Deal For Toyota Now. 10% growth is the kind of figures that makes a company sit up and take notice; in the Middle East Toyota recorded sales of 729,000 vehicles, 37k of which were Lexus products. You guessed it – a new record for Toyota Middle East sales.
3) The Biggest Seller Will Surprise You. Not the Corolla – that’s in second place. Top seller in the region is remarkably, the Hilux pickup, followed by the Corolla and the Land Cruiser. Hilux sold an eye-popping 120,000 units, mostly in Saudi Arabia.
Even in its outgoing year, Corolla did well with 106,000 sales, only a small portion of which are the rather decent new model. Land Cruiser sales are tailing off at 67,000 units, unable to match the unusual bump it had in 2012.
4) Sports Cars Really Don’t Set The Market On Fire. With all the hoopla over the 86, Toyota only managed to shift a measly 878 units last year. They sold even less of the reborn Zelas coupe – a trifling 80 cars – and the future looks uncertain for the rear-wheel-drive Jesus. Heck, I don’t even have mine anymore.
5) The Yen Doesn’t Matter Anymore. One of the questions asked at our roundtable was if the falling price of the yen would make Toyotas cheaper in the Gulf. Negishi-san’s answer was simple: Not much. More than 60% of Toyotas sold in the GCC come from non-Japanese sources: Corolla from Taiwan, Avalon and Sequoia from the US, Camry from Australia (for now) with only the big trucks still built in the land of the Rising Sun as well as Lexus products.
6) We Might Get American Trucks. Though Negishi-san fastidiously avoided discussing future product and especially anything about a turbo 86 or Supra, he admitted that American-focused SUVs like the 4Runner, Highlander and – fingers crossed – Tundra were under consideration. “The voices are growing louder for such cars,” he noted.
I think that when the fj cruiser is discontinued by the end of this year, the 4Runner would be very fit to fill in the gap.