By Aditi Chess and Norichiko Shiruzo
New Delhi/Austin (Reuters)-Toyota’s petrol-electric hybrid demand for the demand for gasoline hybrids to struggle to maintain the pace, leading to a shortage of parts and monthly waiting for car buyers, according to four people familiar with the situation.
Hybrids’ shares are low in Toyota dealers in major markets, including the US, Japan, China and Europe, two of the people told Reuters.
The tide of demand is a challenge for Toyota, the dominant player in the hybrids. But it also justifies a bet on the Japanese car manufacturer of forecasts from some rivals that electric vehicles only for batteries will delete hybrid demand.
Global sales of hybrids, including attachment models, have almost tripled to 16.1 million out of 5.7 million in the last five years, according to data provided by LMC Automotive.
Toyota European customers are on average 60 to 70 days for new hybrids, about twice the big time in 2020, one of the people said. The vehicles with the most difficult demand and the shortest supply in Europe include Yaris Cross Hybrid and RAV4 plugin Hybrid, according to Toyota.
In Japan, buyers are waiting two to five months for many models, a Toyota website shows.
In a US West Coast dealer, Prius’s hybrids were sold out in mid -February and only a handful of Camry hybrids were available, another person said.
And in India, an important Toyota growth market, delivery time has improved since last year, but is still two to nine months depending on the model, another person said.
Reuters interviews 10 industrial figures, including Toyota people and its suppliers who described the difficulties affecting the hybrid supply chain. Details of the participating parts and suppliers, and some Toyota measures are considering alleviating tensions in a market have not been reported earlier.
Toyota said in a statement that demand for hybrids has increased “significantly in the last year in all regions” and is doing its best to increase production in response. The automaker said it had improved the delivery time of vehicles in the last year.
“The production capacity of hybrid parts and components from our suppliers and our internal production of parts is currently compliance with our annual production plans and the capacity of the assembly of vehicles,” the statement said.
Snare supply
Delivery time causes a headache for some customers.
Saugata Dasgupta, CEO of Asia for Development in New Delhi, told Reuters that he had ordered a hybrid SUV from Toyota Innova Hycross in January 2023, but he learned from the dealer in August 2024 that he was facing an additional wait from 25 weeks.
Another email arrived this month: he will have to wait another 15 to 25 weeks.
At this point, Dasgpta said, he has already given up waiting and bought a gasoline model from the local carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra.
The delay stems from the strict delivery of components used in hybrid power engines, which are largely made in Japan and delivered abroad to where cars were assembled, said two of the people who were anonymous as others as they were not authorized to disclose the information.
The deficiency of magnets used in parts delivered to Aisin Corp is emerging as a pain moment, one of the people said. As a result, Aisin, one of the biggest manufacturers of Toyota Group components, failed to receive rotors and status from their suppliers, slowing down the delivery of hybrid engines to Toyota, the man said. While magnets are obtained from Japan and China, the resulting problem with Aisin supplies was global, the man said.
Similarly, the manufacturer of the best components of Toyota Group, Denso, is influenced by difficulties in second and third suppliers, which caused delay in the supply of his inverters, another person said. The inverters convert battery current and are used to control the engine.
Faced with a shortage of components, Toyota may take care of other suppliers other than DENSO in India and is considering making inverters in the country, two of the people told Reuters.
Toyota did not handle Reuters’ questions about specific suppliers. Aisin and Denso declined to comment.
Reuters reported last year that Toyota is moving to convert most or its entire line into hybrid vehicles, which can put more pressure on suppliers.
Adding capacity
Varinder Wadhwa, Vice President at Toyota Kirloskar Motor, the automotive Indian unit, said in a statement that removing difficulties with the delivery chain has already led to a “significant rationalization” of waiting times.
The company recently added capacity to produce an additional 32,000 vehicles a year and invests to add another 100,000 vehicles, WadHwa said.
Elsewhere, Toyota has invested $ 14 billion for a North Carolina battery factory to respond to hybrid demand and said this should start supplying electrified vehicles in North America in April. Nearly half of Toyota vehicles, assembled in the United States last year, were hybrids.
Hybrids are rarely a bright place for Toyota in China, where it encounters fierce competition from the likes of BYD. While Toyota’s total sales in China in 2024 fell 7% compared to a year earlier, sales of its electrified vehicles – mainly hybrids – increased by 27%.
Competitors like Hyundai and his Kia branch are also struggling to increase the production of hybrids, mainly due to a lack of capacity, according to a person familiar with the question.
A Hyundai dealer in Seoul said this month that waiting time is a year for the hybrid version of Palisade SUV. Waiting for the KIA carnival hybrid was 10 months for the Sorento hybrid, seven months, the company’s documents showed.
Hyundai did not answer questions about the situation.
In August, Hyundai said it would double its hybrid range to 14 models by 2030 to oppose the delay in EV reception.
Honda, another player in the hybrids, said he saw a strong demand, especially in North America and Japan, but declined to give specifics about the delivery time.
For some customers, fuel savings make hybrids worth the wait.
Rakesh Kumar, a businessman in Uttar Pradesh in India, finally received his SUV on Toyota Hyryder in March, almost five months after ordering it.
“We already have a hybrid car in the family,” he said, “and I know his mileage is much better than any other car.”
(Report from Aditi Chess and Norichiko Shiru; Additional Reporting by Daniel Leusink in Tokyo, Hindju Jin and Hecong Yang in Seoul and Saurab Sharma in Laknau; Editing by David Dolan, Brian Tevent and David Crowshow))
