Toyota Motor Corp. revised its annual sales forecast for the industry by about 6 percent downward as supply constraints are expected to limit the industry’s ability to meet high consumer demand.
Bob Carter, head of sales at Toyota Motor North America, said the automaker is waiting 15.5 million car sales in the U.S. this year compared to the 16.5 million that was estimated in October.
“This is an adjustment that, frankly, is not based on consumer demand,” Carter told reporters on Wednesday during a roundtable for the media. “It’s based solely on our predictions of what the supply environment will be like in 2022.”
The downward revision reflects long-term constraints as a result global semiconductor shortagehigher raw material prices and war in Ukrainepulsation effects on supply chains.
These problems have led to a tight inventory of new cars, which has led to that year after year Declining sales of new cars in the US by 16 percent across the industry in the first quarter. According to Motor Intelligence, the sales ratio is annualized with seasonally adjusted in March amounted to 13.4 million people, down sharply from 17.79 million a year earlier.
Said Carter Toyota has a good idea of its supply chain for the second and third quarters of this year, but the outlook for the fourth quarter remains “dim”. If its fourth-quarter supply assumption for the industry is too high, annual sales could fall to 14.9 or 15 million, he said.
However, the automaker is “confident enough” in its estimate of 15.5 million.
