International Business News – In Japan, among Toyota’s products, the price of used cars exceeds that of new cars one after another. As of the end of July, the SUV “Land Cruiser” was more than twice the price of a new car. Second-hand prices of the popular “Harrier” and MPV “Alphard” are also rising. Demand is flocking to used cars, with Toyota delaying deliveries of new cars or halting orders for some models.
According to the statistics of Proto Corporation, which operates the large used car information website “Goo-net”, the median used price of the 2022 “Land Cruiser ZX” is 17.05 million yen (approximately RMB 863,000), which meets the manufacturer’s recommendation. 2.3 times the retail price (7.3 million yen for gasoline cars, or about RMB 369,000).
From the perspective of Alphard, the median second-hand price of the 2021 hybrid “Executive Lounge S” is currently 8.249 million yen (about 418,000 yuan), which is higher than the new car price of 7.752 million yen (about 39.2 million yuan). From the perspective of “Harrier” and “Corolla Cross”, some years and styles are also higher than the price of new cars.
The background is that the supply shortage of semiconductors and the previous lockdown in Shanghai have prevented Toyota from producing as planned. The order backlog in Japan is about 1 million units, which is one-third of the domestic annual production plan (3 million units). In terms of delivery time, Land Cruiser is more than 4 years, and other popular SUVs are also close to 1 year. Land Cruiser, Alphard and Harrier have suspended taking orders due to the inability to keep up with production, and there is no prospect of restarting.
Not limited to Toyota, the supply of new cars from other car companies has also stagnated, the supply of used cars has not increased, and sales of used cars in Japan are sluggish. Data released by the Japan Automobile Sales Association on August 10 showed that used car sales (excluding light vehicles) in July fell 4% year-on-year to 284,546 units, a record low for July.
On the other hand, demand continues to significantly outstrip supply, and used car prices are on the rise even from a market-wide perspective. According to data from USS, Japan’s largest used car auction company, the average transaction unit price of used cars in July increased by 26% year-on-year to 1.159 million yen (about 59,000 yuan). The highest since 2000 for retrospective statistics.