It's Official: Who Built The Mostest in 2009?

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

OICA, the venerable “Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d’Automobiles,” better known as the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, finally got around to finishing their 2009 World Ranking of Manufacturers by motor vehicle production. This list has very little surprises for the TTAC B&B who pinned our World’s Top Ten Automakers 2009 to the wall. Yet, there are some. Let’s see …

Two months ago, we predicted that “as far as the top 4 are concerned, we do not expect any changes in position” when the final OICA list comes out. TTAC and OICA agree: #1 remains Toyota, # 2 remains GM, #3 remains Volkswagen, #4 remains Ford (all except Toyota with a slightly different count than in their annual reports, but I guess a few hundred thousand units more or less don’t matter in the grand scheme of things.) We predicted that also: “Some companies gave OICA 2008 numbers that differ from what’s on their books and in their annual reports. Expect the shenanigans to continue.” They sure did.

From place 5 on down, the field is bunching up a bit, final numbers matter now. Hyundai kicked PSA off place 5, where we had them. Probably by counting KIA as theirs, which they did not do in the prior years. In their annual report, Hyundai has 3,106,178 units for 2009, on the OICA list, there are 4,645,776. Sorry, PSA! Creative bookkeeping!

FIAT, which had not made our Top Ten list, found some more cars for OICA, and kicked Suzuki from 9 to 10. Suzuki had reported to OICA the same number they had in their annual report (with a tiny difference of 4 units.) That’s what you get for being honest. Fiat’s miraculous resurrection of lost sales kicked Renault off the number 10 position they had on TTAC’s list.

One oddity for number nerds: Volvo is counted separately in the OICA list, with 105,873 units sold. Why in the world did Volvo not count them for 2009? Ford owned Volvo in 2009, they still own them until the Geely deal is closed. There is such a big gap between #3 Volkswagen and #4 Ford that the Volvo sales would not have changed anything. It still is odd. It may be the only time where a manufacturer reported less to OICA than what they were entitled to.

OICA Top 50 Car Manufacturers


by production (total vehicles)
RankGroupTotal1TOYOTA7,234,4392G.M.6,459,0533VOLKSWAGEN6,067,2084FORD4,685,3945HYUNDAI4,645,7766PSA3,042,3117HONDA3,012,6378NISSAN2,744,5629FIAT2,460,22210SUZUKI2,387,53711RENAULT2,296,00912DAIMLER1,447,95313CHANGAN1,425,77714B.M.W.1,258,41715MAZDA984,52016CHRYSLER959,07017MITSUBISHI802,46318BAIC684,53419TATA672,04520DONGFENG663,26221FAW650,27522CHERY508,56723FUJI491,35224BYD427,73225SAIC347,59826ANHUI JIANGHUAI336,97927GEELY330,27528ISUZU316,33529BRILLIANCE314,18930AVTOVAZ294,73731GREAT WALL226,56032MAHINDRA223,06533SHANGDONG KAIMA169,02334PROTON152,96535CHINA NATIONAL120,93036VOLVO105,87337CHONGQING LIFAN104,43438FUJIAN103,17139KUOZUI93,30340SHANNXI AUTO79,02641PORSCHE75,63742ZIYANG NANJUN72,47043GAZ69,59144NAVISTAR65,36445GUANGZHOU AUTO62,99046PACCAR58,91847CHENZHOU JI’AO51,00848QINGLING50,12049HEBEI ZHONGXING48,17350ASHOK LEYLAND47,694
Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Th009 Th009 on Jul 29, 2010

    @Bertel, with regard to the discrepancy to the annual reports (for example, VW is 6.31M in the annual report vs 6.07M in the OICA figures) is because the OICA reports production -- and annual reports generally report sales. Most manufacturers slowed down production in early 2009 to run down inventories. VW's figures, for example, indicate an inventory reduction of 240K units. The 2010 figures should not show as large discrepancies.

  • Charly Charly on Jul 29, 2010

    Where are the Iranian car companies or are they all include as jv?

  • ToolGuy This might be a good option for my spouse when it becomes available -- thought about reserving one but the $500 deposit is a little too serious. Oh sorry, that was the Volvo EX30, not the Mustang. Is Volvo part of Ford? Is the Mustang an EV? I'm so confused.
  • Mikey My late wife loved Mustangs ..We alway rented one while travelling . GM blood vetoed me purchasing one . 3 years after retirement bought an 08 rag top, followed by a 15 EB Hard top, In 18 i bought a low low mileage 05 GT rag with a stick.. The car had not been properly stored. That led to rodent issues !! Electrical nightmare. Lots of bucks !! The stick wasn't kind to my aging knees.. The 05 went to a long term dedicated Mustang guy. He loves it .. Today my garage tenant is a sweet 19 Camaro RS rag 6yl Auto. I just might take it out of hibernation this weekend. The Mustang will always hold a place in my heart.. Kudos to Ford for keeping it alive . I refuse to refer to the fake one by that storied name .
  • Ajla On the Mach-E, I still don't like it but my understanding is that it helps allow Ford to continue offering a V8 in the Mustang and F-150. Considering Dodge and Ram jumped off a cliff into 6-cylinder land there's probably some credibility to that story.
  • Ajla If I was Ford I would just troll Stellantis at all times.
  • Ronin It's one thing to stay tried and true to loyal past customers; you'll ensure a stream of revenue from your installed base- maybe every several years or so.It's another to attract net-new customers, who are dazzled by so many other attractive offerings that have more cargo capacity than that high-floored 4-Runner bed, and are not so scrunched in scrunchy front seats.Like with the FJ Cruiser: don't bother to update it, thereby saving money while explaining customers like it that way, all the way into oblivion. Not recognizing some customers like to actually have right rear visibility in their SUVs.
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