Toyota has halted pre-orders for some cars on its domestic market due to its production still lagging nearly 1,000,000 units behind the current demand since the Covid-19, Nikkei reports.
Earlier this fall, such cars as the Aqua hatchback, the Land Cruiser 300 SUV and the Alphard minivan all went on backorder due to insufficient supply. The local dealerships point out that the upward sales trend had only been observed for a few months from April to October 2023.
The rest of the time, customers were not guaranteed a timely delivery of their cars due to the shortages. With the abovementioned models now on backorder and no longer available to buy at all, the situation looks worse now than ever.
Toyota began lagging behind its vehicle shipment schedules when the first Covid-related lockdown measures were enacted. The semiconductor shortage that followed aggravated the issue. Rumor has it that the backorder has now reached a million units, although the company has not confirmed it.
Another factor contributing to the issue is that Toyota changed its approach to selling cars on the domestic market. In the past, the automotive corporation had four different types of dealerships in Japan, each dedicated to its own car category. But lately, the company has allowed customers to place orders for any car at any dealership, thus boosting the demand for its most popular vehicles even further.
The situation is reportedly changing for the better now, but it will take time until things revert to normal. In late 2022, the average delivery time was six months; it has since dropped to five months. Toyota is hopeful that the backorder will drop down to four months by the next spring – unless something happens again, that is.
