Tokyo: Toyota Motor Corp. looked set to retain
its title as the world’s top-selling car maker in the first half of this
year, company figures showed on Friday, outpacing General Motors Co.
and Volkswagen AG as it boosted overseas sales to a record high.
The Japanese auto maker said its groupwide global sales for the first
six months totalled 4.911 million vehicles. That was down 1.1% from a
year earlier due to weaker Japan sales following the end of green car
subsidies, but sales in the US, its biggest market, were strong.
By comparison, General Motors’s January-June sales rose 4% to more than
4.85 million cars and light trucks, while Volkswagen’s climbed 5.5% to
4.7 million vehicles, those companies reported earlier this month.
Volkswagen’s sales figure, however, excludes its Scania and MAN brands.
Scania sold 37,980 vehicles during the same period, while the MAN figure
will be released later this month. In recent years, MAN has sold around
60,000 to 70,000 vehicles in the first half of the year.
Toyota regained the global sales crown last year after slipping to third
place behind GM and Volkswagen in 2011, when its supply chain was hit
by naturals disasters in Japan and Thailand and after a series of
recalls tarnished its reputation for quality. Previously, it had been on
top from 2008 through 2010.
Toyota’s groupwide total includes sales at Daihatsu Motor Co Ltd and Hino Motors Ltd.
Toyota, based in central Japan, last year made about 40% of its vehicles
in Japan and exported nearly 60% of that. It has benefited from a
weaker yen that allows it to export cars more profitably. Toyota, which
is scheduled to announce quarterly results on 2 August, is expected to
post an 84% year-on-year rise in operating profit to 649 billion yen
($6.5 billion) and an operating profit margin of 10.8%, according to
analyst forecasts. The results would likely outpace those of No. 2
Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. and third-ranked Honda Motor Co.
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