Toyota May Cut Models From US Lineup, But Promises 31 New / Updated Vehicles In Next Three Years

Toyota has released its April-September 2018 Financial Results which reveal global sales increased by 29,493 units, from last year, to hit a total of 4,418,928 vehicles.

Despite the small uptick in sales, net revenues rose 3.4 percent to 14.674 trillion yen ($133.40 billion). Operating income and net income were also up compared to last year.

Despite the seemingly good news, the picture wasn’t entirely rosy. North American sales only climbed by 15,088 units to a total of 1,411,246. Even worse, operating income on the continent dropped by 3.9 billion yen ($35.45 million) to 137.2 billion yen ($1.24 billion).

Toyota isn’t happy with the results in North America and Automotive News reports Toyota Motor North America CEO Jim Lentz said “We are taking a hard look at all of the segments that we compete in to make sure we are competing in profitable segments and that products we sell have strategic value.” This effectively means the company will examine its lineup and could potentially drop models that are underperforming.

There’s no word on which vehicles could get the axe, but one potential causality could be the Sequoia. The second-generation SUV was introduced over a decade ago as it debuted at the 2007 Los Angeles Auto Show. The Sequoia hasn’t changed much since then and sales have declined significantly since their peak in 2002. According to Carsalesbase data, Toyota only sold 12,156 Sequoias in the United States last year.

Other slow selling models in the United States include the Prius C and Yaris. The company only managed to sell 12,415 units of the hybrid hatchback last year, while the Yaris did even worse as it racked up sales of 8,653 units. However, these models still did better than the 86 (6,846 units) and Land Cruiser (3,100 units).

While it remains unclear if Toyota will actually drop any of the aforementioned models, Lentz’s presentation did reveal Toyota and Lexus will introduce 31 “all-new, redesigned or refreshed” models in North America over the course of the next three years. The company didn’t elaborate, but this undoubtedly includes the 2020 Supra and the 2019 RAV4 which will go on sale later this year.

We can also expect more eco-friendly models in the future as the presentation revealed more than 15 percent of the company’s North American lineup will consist of hybrid, PHEV and fuel cell vehicles by 2020.