Toyota Remains No. 1, Outsells GM and Volkswagen in 2013
For the second consecutive year, Toyota is the No.1 automaker in the world, followed by General Motors and Volkswagen.
In 2013, Toyota sold 9.98 million units across the globe while GM and VW moved 9.71 million and around 9.7 million units respectively. For 2014, the No. 1 automaker aims to break past 10 million units sold with a goal of 10.32 million by the end of the year, a 4 percent increase over last year’s total.
While Toyota originally predicted in 2007 that they would move 10.4 million units by 2009, the path to 10 million sold was hampered by the combination of the Great Recession, rapid changes in corporate culture, unintentional acceleration recalls, and the 2011 Tōhoku-Fukushima disaster.
Previously, Toyota held the No. 1 title from 2008 to 2010, briefly losing in 2011 to General Motors — who lost said title to Toyota in 2008 after holding it for 80 years — before reclaiming the crown in 2012 by 451,000 units. Overall sales between the two automakers in 2013 rose 4 percent for GM, 2 percent for Toyota.
Though the automaker’s president Akio Toyoda may be happy with the news and the potential to move past the 10-million mark, volume is not a motivating factor in his overall strategy. Instead, building ever-better vehicles and changes to how they are built, such as Toyota’s new Toyota New Global Architecture modular production system, are the main focus for the No. 1 global automaker.
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Expected numbers from all 3 biggest players, maybe Toyota did little better in last quarter. Next year will be interresting, because each of them should sell about 10.25-10.30 m vehicles by my calculations, Toyota probably will stil end up No.1 thanks to YEN exchange rates - it will give them opportunity to sell bigger volumes - thanks to incentives in markets where their vehicles will come from their JAP factories. VWG and GM basically ended up 2013 at the same numbers we must wait few days for MAN and Scania annual reports, but VWG probably sold something like 9.717-9.720m that would mean they sold few thousand vehicles more than GM - they sold 9.714m. Next year all big markets will grow - China, NAFTA and Europe, so it will be interresting to see how big fall will Japan have after that tax increase in April - it will decide Toyota´s numbers a lot, because they are huge in Japan. GM could end up also No.1 next year with ideal circumstances, big growth in NAFTA region + CHina, but their decision to witdhraw from EU means even if Opel/Vauxhall will outperform EU growth, still Chevrolet division will pull them down so i expect GM in EU sell similar number of vehicles in 2014.
Instead of talking about "Detroit's big-3", in the future we'll be using the phrase "World's big-3". It is a tight race, and as romismak mentions, any miscalculation or mishap from any of the players and the positions can change.
"Instead, building ever-better vehicles and changes to how they are built, such as Toyota’s new Toyota New Global Architecture modular production system, are the main focus for the No. 1 global automaker." Maximum sales for maximum sales' sake is not sustainable, and it will eventually end in a crash-and-burn type scenario, so I think this is a better idea. Toyota is at a point at which it can turn things around and produce higher quality cars without first being exposed and embarrassed for the relative cheapness of some of its current offerings, like Camry, Corolla, Yaris and Tundra. And Toyota also needs to work on its small-offset crash safety. How is it that the quite-large 2014 Highlander only scored "Acceptable" in that test, when virtually every other large crossover got "Good"?
So you say Toyota is number one in sales? How could they have ever become number one without the union sucking the life-blood out of the workers, the community, and the nation? I toured the Georgetown Kentucky plant about ten years ago. STARTING wages were $23/hr. Management took all of the employees who had perfect attendance that year and then pulled six names out of a hat...each got a brand new car. They have on-site daycare. It was a clean, quiet, organized place to work. The other car makers have millstones around their necks.