Toyota sales inquiries back to pre-COVID levels in December 2022

The end of 2022 saw carmakers begin to claw back ground following the two heavily supply affected years that came before.

The Australian new-car market was up three per cent last year with 1,081,429 deliveries, and Toyota once again sat on top with 21.4 per cent of that sales pie topped by the HiLux ute and RAV4 SUV.

Toyota's share was a little shy of the 22 per cent the brand was able to command in 2020, but an improvement on 2021.

Following years of unprecedented demand, though, according to Toyota's Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations, Sean Hanley, the market is beginning to shift.

“We’ve come back to what [Toyota] calls pre COVID-19 inquiry levels”, Hanley told WhichCar.

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“Now when I say that, people instantly think ‘oh my god what does that mean, is that bad?’ Well, no, [Toyota] was very healthy pre-COVID, but this unprecedented demand over the last 12 months is shifting.

“It’s already starting to come off, so I would say that officially, we’re now operating in a pre-COVID inquiry environment.

“We've got what I call ‘COVID-era demand’ – that is unprecedented – in our order bank, but the actual new car inquiry right now, at the end of December at least (that could change again of course) is what I would call pre-COVID inquiry level. That's still very healthy for Toyota… but it’s not as high as it was six months ago”, Hanley added.

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Will Toyota sales continue to improve in 2023?

Though the industry is generally predicting an improved 2023, Sean Hanley was pragmatic about Toyota’s sales figures over the next 12 months.

“It’s really hard to predict [what 2023 will hold], it’s still a very volatile supply situation. It's an evolving supply situation. In other parts of the world, where COVID is still well and truly around, it could have an impact on labour.

“Semiconductor chips are still presenting a problem; getting enough precious metals to make enough hybrid batteries and batteries for full battery-electric vehicles is still presenting challenges.”

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Toyota’s 2022 sales figure of 231,050 cars delivered marks the brand’s best result in 14 years. When asked if Toyota would replicate that number in 2023, Hanley said:

“At the moment I’m very confident we’ll be able to do 200,000, but it’ll be largely dependent on supply”, and was not willing to say the Japanese carmaker would better this year's result.