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.

More by Bertel Schmitt

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 18 comments
  • 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?

  • EBFlex China can F right off.
  • MrIcky And tbh, this is why I don't mind a little subsidization of our battery industry. If the American or at least free trade companies don't get some sort of good start, they'll never be able to float long enough to become competitive.
  • SCE to AUX Does the WTO have any teeth? Seems like countries just flail it at each other like a soft rubber stick for internal political purposes.
  • Peter You know we’ve entered the age of self driving vehicles When KIAs go from being stolen to rolling away by themselves.
  • Analoggrotto TTAC is full of drug addicts with short memories. Just beside this article is another very beautiful article about how the EV9 was internationally voted by a renowned board of automotive experts who are no doubt highly educated, wealthy and affluent; the best vehicle in entire world. That's planet earth for you numbskulls. Let me repeat: the best vehicle in the world is the Kia EV9. Voted, and sealed, and if you try to deny it Fanny Willis is ready to prosecute you; but she will send her boyfriend instead because she is busy.
Next