Six months into the year, our leaderboard resembles a bloodbath. All of world’s largest OEMs sold fewer units than in the first six months of the prior year. Toyota Group still leads the field by a wide margin (2nd placed VW is more than 800,000 units behind) it also leads in sales lost. A drop of nearly 5% pierced the previously abounding confidence among world’s perennially largest automaker, all the way up to its chairman.
There are many reasons for the drop, the most cited are the production halts due to quality assurance scandals at Daihatsu and Hino, on top of sluggish sales in China. Falling sales enraged shareholders who attempted a revolt at the last annual meeting. Even chairman Akio Toyoda was demoralized. He said yesterday that he may not be reelected as a director if shareholder support continues to erode.
