A couple of months back we shared with you that Toyota is on its way to become the World’s number 1 car maker for the year 2012, and now it’s official!
Toyota has become the number 1 carmaker in the world and has regained its throne. TheDetroitBureau.com has stated that the company has become the Numero Uno in global sales once again, inching ahead of its two major competitors, GM and VW. The company managed to put 9.75 million cars globally on the roads. Joining the Japanese were GM motors and the Volkswagen on the podium. Previously, Toyota has managed to snatch the Largest Car Maker’s tag for the first half of 2012 and the colors continue to fly!
GM sold 9.29 million units to finish at the second position with VW managing 9.1 million units to finish a close second. Even though the company has become number 1, they still are behind the sales targets they had set but fell short because of the Chinese shutting their doors on the Japanese goods and the size of the Chinese market is such that it can turn sales figures on its head alone.
But the good news is that they are back with a bang after a disastrous 2011 where they fell to the number 3 spot courtesy the Earthquakes and plant closures. Toyota’s sales increased 35 percent over 2011 in 2012 and and the sales increased mainly due to the additions to the Prius range. Toyota expects to sell 9.91 million units in 2013 and expects to stay at the pinnacle with these sales figures.
And as far as India is concerned, India contributes a very small share to the sales figures but that does not mean Toyota values India any less. Etios and Liva are India (and other similar countries) specific products along with the segment leaders in the form of Innova and Fortuner. VW aims to overtake Toyota by 2018 but seeing Toyota has plans of going pretty much north from here, they have their work cut out. The Japanese will rule the roost for quite some more time to come is our guess!
Source: autoblog.com
