Toyota, Lexus End Tough Sales Year on High Notes “It was frightening,” Lexus executive Andrew Gilleland says of plummeting spring sales. Toyota Motor North America finished 2020 with sales of 2.1 million vehicles, a volume decrease of 11.3% from 2019.
Working at his desk on March 15 and going over dire sales numbers was a scary day at the office, recalls Andrew Gilleland, group vice president and general manager of Toyota’s luxury brand Lexus in the U.S.
“It was frightening,” he says, referring to the COVID-19-related plunge in vehicle deliveries that occurred industry-wide last spring. “Anyone who would say otherwise would be blasé.”
Pandemic Sharpens Split Between Have and Have-Not Car Buyers
Bloomberg 1/6/2021 Gabrielle Coppola and Keith Naughton
(Bloomberg) Pandemic lockdowns have cost millions of low-income Americans their jobs, while white-collar types who work from home are flush with cash they can’t spend on dining or travel. Instead, many of them are buying expensive cars.
High-end trucks and sport utility vehicles are flying off dealer lots, but sales of entry-level compact cars and crossovers remain depressed. General Motors Co.’s premium people haulers like the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon SUVs saw deliveries rise more than 30% in the fourth quarter, but sales of the more affordable Chevy Equinox crossover sank 22%.