TOYOTA has fended off Volkswagen to hold on to the top spot as the world’s top-selling motor manufacturer for a third consecutive year.
Bloomberg reports that the Japanese company’s sales success has been driven by record US deliveries of its SUVs.
Surging demand for sport-utility vehicles including the compact RAV4 and mid-size Highlander help to bolster Toyota’s US market share
Worldwide sales for Toyota, including its Hino Motors and Daihatsu Motor units, climbed 3% to 10.23M vehicles last year, according to a company statement. Volkswagen last week reported a 4.2% gain to 10.14 million vehicles, including its two heavy-truck units. General Motors came third with 9.92M sales, up 2.1%.
Surging demand for sport-utility vehicles including the compact RAV4 and mid-size Highlander help to bolster Toyota’s US market share last year, spurring plans to boost local production and exports from Japan in 2015.
“Their (Toyota’s) focus is not No. 1,” Peggy Furusaka, a Tokyo-based auto-credit analyst at Moody’s Investors Service, said. “Toyota is more concerned about keeping profitability than chasing numbers. So for coming years, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Toyota selling fewer cars than VW.”
Toyota forecasts a 1% decline in annual sales to 10.15M vehicles this year because of an expected slump in demand in Japan where a consumption tax increase last year had brought forward many purchases, a factory spokesperson said.
