After 23 years of production in Argentina, Toyota has reached a milestone in vehicle exports by sending out its one millionth vehicle from its Buenos Aires plant in the Province of Zárate. As a result of its continuing success, exports from the Toyota plant represent 50% of the total vehicle exports from the entire automotive industry within Argentina. The actual one millionth Toyota Hilux Pick Up was shipped to El Salvador
So far in 2020, Toyota has shipped 32,724 units out of the 40,668 vehicles the Zárate plant has produced so far this year (15,873 of which were manufactured after the restart of the break in its operations due to Covid-19). This represents a total of US $ 800 million in foreign exchange income.
Back in 1997, the first shipment of Toyota pick-ups was made to Brazil and Uruguay. However it took until 2015 and the increase in production at the Zárate plant to reach the 23 new markets in Latin America and the Caribbean that it now supplies with Hilux trucks and SW4 SUV (Hilux framed Fortuner).
That increase in production was supported by the construction of a new 18,000 m2 spare parts distribution center in 2016 allowing for parts to be shipped to the entire region in a matter of hours.
The Zárate plant is tooling up for the recent upgrades to the Hilux and SW4 Fortuner.
The 23 markets in Latin America and the Caribbean are: Aruba, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curaçao, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic , St. Maarten, Uruguay and Venezuela.
As well as a strong Export market, Toyota is one of the best-selling brands in Argentina with the entry level Etios followed by the Yaris, Corolla, RAV4 and the number one export model; the hugely successful Toyota Hilux Pick Up which alone accounts for half of the vehicles Argentina exports.
With the Covid-19 crisis affecting vehicle sales worldwide, Toyota has managed to take a market share of 10.6% with 3.45 million units sold for the first half of the year, putting Volkswagen in second place and Honda in third.
Toyota has been a leader over the last ten years and has concentrated on becoming the manufacturer with the best line-up of models under one brand, while other manufactures have played around with different brands covering a wide variety of customer needs. Toyota’s exception being the luxury Lexus mark and Daihatsu for the smaller and lower cost opposite end of the market.
In Nicaragua, Toyota continues to take the lion’s share of the market, the latest (2019) numbers show a 24.3% of market share, with Nissan (15%) second and Hyundai (10%) in third place.
