Toyota beat Volkswagen and General Motors for the third year in a row with major contributions coming from the US, China and Brazil.
Toyota retained its number one title in global automotive sales for the third year in a row, having sold 10.23 million vehicles in 2014. Post the Tsunami and earthquake in 2011, the Japanese manufacturer reclaimed the numero uno title in 2012 and has been consistently selling more than the competition crossing the 10 million sales mark every year. The automaker’s sales saw a major hike of 6 percent in the US, 13 percent in China and 10 percent in Brazil that contributed to the company’s number one position.
Toyota beat Volkswagen and General Motors to the title as the German auto giant came in second with 10.14 million vehicles sold, while GM was third with 9.92 million vehicles sold last year. Nonetheless, the auto giants have been posting positive results individually. Volkswagen saw sales go up by 4 percent last year compared to 2013, while GM recorded a 2 percent high compared to 2013 and also set a new sales record for the company.
For 2015, Toyota expects sales overseas to increase by 2 percent to more than 8 million vehicles from 7.9 million vehicles last year. In its home market though, the company is forecasting that sales will fall by 1 percent due to the sales tax hike levied last year and overall population decline that is expected to bring down total sales to 10.15 million vehicles this year. Meanwhile, Volkswagen has a target of becoming the world’s number one automaker by 2018 but their target won’t be easy to achieve as Korea’s Hyundai has been posing a big threat to the German firm.
