Japan Carmaker Sales Soar While Chip Dearth Weighs on Production
- Toyota, Honda April vehicle sales more than double last year
- Car production though is down from pre-pandemic levels
Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles bound for shipment at a port in Yokohama, Japan.
Photographer: Toru Hanai/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Japanese automaker sales soared in April on rising demand for cars in China and the U.S. but production slipped from pre-pandemic levels, pointing to the emergence of a gap between supply and demand that’s likely to grow worse as a global shortage of automotive semiconductors drags on.
Toyota Motor Corp.’s global sales rose 103% to 859,448 units in April, a record, the company said in a statement Friday. The world’s largest automaker cited particularly strong demand in America and China for models like its Rav4. Nissan Motor Co.’s global April sales rose 65% to 358,656 units while Honda Motor Co.’s domestic sales were up 106% to 47,817 units.