April 2014 Sales Conference Notes

April 2014 Sales Conference Call
Thursday, May 1, 2014

April 2014 Sales Conference Call (Audio clip)

Good day and thank you for joining us to review April sales results for Toyota, Scion and Lexus.

Speaking today will be:

Bill Fay, Group Vice President and General Manager of the Toyota Division
And Jeff Bracken,

Lexus Group Vice President and General Manager

A recording of the call will be available at Pressroom.Toyota.com about one hour after its conclusion and of course our communications team also is available to field any additional questions you may have @ (310) 468-5297.

Now I’d like to turn it over to Bill for a look at TMS and Toyota Division April results.

Toyota Division Group Vice President and General Manager Bill Fay:

Thank you… Hello everyone, and thank you for joining us today.

Momentum we saw building in March

Continued into April
Industry Sales of 1.4 million vehicles
- Up 7.6% from last year
- Best April in eight years (2006)

SAAR at 16.1 million

Second straight month
An annual sales pace of more than 16 million vehicles
The first time that’s happened since October/November 2007 industry

While we’re still working through some inventory challenges
Caused by the severe winter weather earlier this year
Industry as a whole…
Seems to be back on track for a 16 million plus vehicle year

For Toyota, Lexus and Scion

Total sales of 199,660
Up 13.3% from last year
Lexus continues on roll
- Sales up 28%
- Hear more from Jeff on in a minute

The Toyota Division had a big month

Sales of 176,495 vehicles
Up nearly 12% from last year
Toyota also the industry’s #1 brand in retail sales
For the fourth consecutive month

Really big month for…

Our light truck lineup
Corolla
And Camry

Hopefully you were able to join us at the NY Auto Show

Where we revealed the new 2015 Camry
Appreciate the very positive early reaction
Looking forward to getting it into showrooms this fall

The current model continues to perform well in showrooms

Camry sales last month

Totaled 38,000
Jump of 20%
Best-selling car in America

Corolla

Inventory situation continues to improve
As a result, sales up 20%
More than 29,000 vehicles

On truck side

Total sales up 15 ½ %
Tundra, Sienna, 4Runner, Highlander and Land Cruiser
- All posted double digit gains
Newest models – 4Runner and Highlander
- Up 64 and 28 percent respectively
Five regions had their best April truck months ever
- (Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Kansas City, NY, Portland)

RAV4

Volume leader at nearly 19,000 units
Up 1.6%
Limited only by inventory levels
Still best April ever
Up 25% for the year

Combined pickup sales

Up 13-and-a-half percent
More than 24,000
As Tundra was up 26%
Which makes six straight months of growth since launch of 2014 Tundra model

Toyota Division Hybrid Lineup

Account for more than half of industry’s hybrid sales in April
Saw sales of about 24,000
With Prius topping 18,000
And Camry and Avalon hybrid posting gains

Toyota Certified Used vehicles

Sales of nearly 30,000 vehicles
As used vehicle sales remain strong
Underlining the strength of the overall market

Looking Ahead

To help keep the momentum going in May
Launch second national sales program of the year
Toyota Time
With excellent lease and financing rates available
New products and light trucks continue to be hot
With 4Runner, Highlander and Tundra
Well positioned to take advantage of the spring market

Now I’d like to turn it over to Jeff Bracken for a look at the Lexus results.

Lexus Group Vice President and General Manager Jeff Bracken:

Hello everyone.

As Bill mentioned

Lexus had another great month in April
As did the luxury segment overall
As shoppers continue to be drawn by new products

At Lexus

We out-performed both the industry and the segment
Sales up 28%
To 23,165 units

Six out of eight models posted gains for the month

Both IS and GX more than doubled last year’s results
Car sales up 30%
Luxury utility vehicles up 25%

IS sales of nearly 3,800

Fifth straight month that sales have more than doubled
Up 118% for the year

The ES

Sales of more than 6,000
Up 18%
Biggest increase for ES since last August

Was up 21-and-a-half percent
Has posted double-digit gains every month this year
Sales up 30% YTD

Luxury Utility Vehicle lineup also had another good month

Led by the RX,
- the best-selling luxury utility vehicle
- Sales of 8,130
- Much like the RAV4
- Continuing to work with low inventory levels
- Could be selling more if we had them
Continued strength of new GX
- Sixth straight month since launch
- Sales more than doubled
- 1,600 units
- Up 135% for the year

Lexus Certified Pre-owned

Set new April record
Dealers continuing to do a great jof of retaining our off-lease customers
And turning those vehicles around into CPO sales

And Kelly Blue Book

Named Lexus most trusted luxury brand
For the second straight year in April
An honor we take very seriously.

In closing

Last month we also unveiled the all-new NX
- In Beijing and New York
The first Lexus entry
- Into the luxury compact crossover segment
Model lineup will include NX 200t
- First turbocharged model in the Lexus lineup

With new models driving the luxury segment

The NX not only gives us an all-new product
- But also our first entry into the fast rising
- Compact crossover segment
Positioned below the RX
- The NX will provide an important entry vehicle
- To the Lexus crossover and luxury utility lineup
Looking forward to having them in showrooms this fall

Thank you for joining us today, and now we’d like to open the call up to any questions you may have.