World's Largest Carmaker 2012: GM Could Overpower Toyota
It is a Japanese tradition. At this time of the month, all Japanese automakers provide their global results for the preceding month and the year. This month is no exception. Honda did set an all-time June record and raised its worldwide production by 66 percent for the first half. Nissan also reports an all-time June record and that global production is up 19 percent January through June. The most watched numbers come from Japanese juggernaut Toyota.
Toyota increased its worldwide production by 55 percent for the first half of the year. That, of course, is compared to the same period of a truly catastrophic year in Japan, when car production came to a halt in the months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Across all Toyota Motor Corporation companies and divisions (i.e. Toyota, Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino,) the company produced 5.2 million cars globally in the first six month.
Where does that leave Toyota in the international ranking? That we will only know for sure once GM supplies its Q2 report, which we expect in the first week of August. Toyota is on track to produce around 10 million cars this year. Volkswagen looks like it will make a little less than 9 million, which would mean #3 in the global ranking. GM currently is believed to be a few units behind Toyota.
However, the rest of the year promises a tight neck-on-neck race between GM and Toyota. Toyota will slow down domestic Japanese production to account for the termination of government subsidies. Japanese brands outsell all others in China, which means a high exposure to the slowing Chinese market. Then, on the other hand, China is GM’s most important market. It will be interesting through the end of the year.
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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who is that? akio-san does look a bit unsure about how close he should stand to Andre the Giant there. Like he might get cuffed across the head with a left.
I wouldn't put too much stock into the numbers this year. Toyota lost more than a million sales last year due to the Quake/Tsunami/Thai Floods. Considering the global auto market rose 10% last year, they lost even more. Being the only game in town in South East Asia and Japan, they were naturally going to gain most of these sales back in 2012, plus Govt subsidies in Japan, benefiting only the Japanese automakers has artificially increased sales to dramatic levels. Sales are nearly double in North America for the last 3 or 4 months, when the market only grew 10% on average. Next year, the sales race will still be meaningless. Toyota will be down a lot, due to the pull forward effect of Govt. subsidies and record sales in Japan this year.
So if 2013 is meaningless, what year is fair year to compare? Sales are up from year for the first half and so is incentive spending up to almost $2,000 or almost 25% increase. Someone is trying hard to be No. 1. http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-25/toyota-extends-global-sales-lead-over-general-motors-vw.html