In this Aug 2, 2019 photo, people walk by the logo of Toyota at a show room in Tokyo. (PHOTO / AP)
Toyota Motor Corp overtook Volkswagen AG in 2020 to become the world’s top-selling automaker, the first time the Japanese group has clinched the position in five years.
Toyota’s group sales, which include those of its subsidiaries Daihatsu Motor Co and Hino Motors Ltd., for the year were 9.53 million units, the company said Thursday. That compares with VW’s 9.31 million, announced earlier this month.
The victory for Toyota came despite a painful year for automakers. Although demand for cars recovered marginally toward the end of 2020, industry-wide factory and showroom shutdowns in the spring were enough to drag sales down 14 percent from 2019, according to an estimate from IHS Markit.
The victory for Toyota came despite a painful year for automakers. Although demand for cars recovered marginally toward the end of 2020, industry-wide factory and showroom shutdowns in the spring were enough to drag sales down 14 percent from 2019, according to an estimate from IHS Markit
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It was also a topsy-turvy year in which the gravity of automakers’ losses was largely determined by their level of exposure to the regions most disrupted by the virus.
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VW has a strong footprint in the European Union, where passenger car sales fell an “unprecedented” 24% to fewer than 10 million units in 2020, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. The German carmaker’s sales fell 15%, its worst performance in close to a decade.
VW Chief Executive Officer Herbert Diess initiated a strategic shift after he took over the top job in 2018 to focus on lifting profitability rather than chasing sales growth. VW’s return on sales has been lagging behind Toyota for years and the market slump triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic a year ago exposed the German manufacturer’s relatively high costs.
