Back in 2008, Toyota took GM’s crown as the world’s top-selling automaker, which the American manufacturer had been holding for decades prior to that. General Motors regained this title three years later, in a time when Toyota was feeling the effects of the tsunami disaster that hit Japan in 2011, which caused interruptions in its production process. But, the Japanese automaker managed to bounce back from this disaster, and in 2012, it took the global sales crown once again, holding onto it in the next three years.
Toyota announced that it sold 10.23 million vehicles last year, enough to remain the top-selling car maker for a third consecutive year. This is a 3% improvement over 2013, but the company itself said that it doesn’t expect this growth to continue this year. Toyota outsold General Motors and Volkswagen, but acknowledges that it could be surpassed by the German automaker at the end of the year. Volkswagen sold 10.14 vehicles, recording a 4.2% gain over the year before, while GM took the third spot with 9.92 units sold worldwide, up 2.1%. Last year was a record year for Toyota, and the first time it sold more than 10 million units.
Last year, Toyota saw its biggest growth in China, with a 13% increase over the previous year, followed by Brazil, where it recorded a 10% jump, and the U.S. market, with a 6% increase. The 6% growth in the U.S. is attributed to record sales of its SUVs. It offers five SUV models there, whereas Volkswagen only sells two. Like previous years, the U.S. was the biggest market for Toyota in 2014, recording sales of 2.37 million vehicles. Toyota said that it has faced declining demand in its home market, along with China and Indonesia, which will likely cause it to lose the global sales title this year.
It expects to see a 1% sales drop in 2015, and sell about 10.15 million vehicles by the end of the year. This will give its German rival, Volkswagen, a chance to become the world’s biggest automaker, as it continues to work on expansion plans in Asia. VW intends to open a few more production plants in Southeast Asia, including China, where it hopes to build 4 million units a year. China was Volkswagen’s largest market last year, as the German manufacturer sold 3.67 million vehicles there, a 12% increase over 2013. Also, VW plans to take a more aggressive approach for expansion in the U.S. market, in a bid to meet 2018 sales targets it set a while ago, which includes becoming the world’s top-selling automaker.
In addition to Volkswagen’s growth, the fact that Toyota plans to focus on pushing hydrogen cars and curb production volumes of some of its mass-market vehicles, is another reason why the Japanese company is set to be outsold by its German counterpart in 2015.