Global vehicle sales of the world’s top three automaker groups were down across the board in the first two months of the year. Total industry volume was down 2.6% in the first two months.
Toyota Group weathered the downturn best, losing only 1.4% in sales compared to the first two months of 2021.
Volkswagen Group got it between the teeth, losing nearly 16% in sales. Deliveries in China, Volkswagen’s biggest market, were down 17%. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, down 12%, didn’t fare much better.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict exacerbated the shortage of supplies. All eyes are on the Russian gas supplies to EU. Should they be cut off, industrial users will be hit first.
And now for the usual disclaimer: Daily Kanban ranks world’s largest automakers by sales. We used to determine the largest automaker in the world by looking at production, because this was how the global automaker umbrella association OICA had done it in the past. OICA seems to have thrown-in the towel, and you no longer will find any recent auto manufacturer rankings on the previously authoritative OICA website, neither by production, nor by sales. Reliable production data are harder and harder to come by, forcing us to switch to sales/delivery data published by automakers. Be aware that “deliveries” can be a rather elastic term. Deliveries can be sales to end users, or cars dumped on dealer lots, or cars “delivered” to sales organizations, or combinations thereof.
Also, please note that Mitsubishi Motors does not publish global sales, only domestic sales in Japan. For that reason, we are forced to use Mitsubishi’s published global production data as a proxy. Speaking of the Alliance, their number reporting is not allied at all, and a common picture requires considerable Excel machinations. Nissan and Mitsubishi report sales and production, Renault only reports deliveries. Mitsubishi does not report global sales, Nissan does. To make the confusion complete, Nissan sometimes reports sales for the April-to-March fiscal year, and sometimes for the calendar year.
