Toyota is the world’s largest carmaker for the second straight year, with the company selling 9.98 million units last year, beating both the GM and Volkswagen Groups.
Toyota said its vehicle sales, including deliveries from subsidiaries Hino Motors and Daihatsu Motor, rose 2.4 percent in 2013 to 9.98 million units. General Motors announced 9.71 million sales, while VW preliminary estimates are of over 9.7 million units.
The Japanese carmaker says it will break the 10 million sales barrier this year, forecasting deliveries of more than 10.32 million units (+4 percent) and the production of 10.43 million vehicles (+3 percent). However, competition is heating up: while Toyota led GM by 460,000 units in 2012, the gap has narrowed to about 270,000 units in 2013. And VW is closing in too – although the German carmaker won’t release sales figures earlier than March, it estimates more than 9.7 million sales last year.
VW wants to become the world’s No. 1 carmaker by 2018 and has announced plans to spend more than $7 billion during the next five years in North America alone. The carmaker wants the VW and Audi brands to sell 1 million vehicles in the region by 2018.
GM too wants to roll out at least 14 new or updated vehicles in the U.S. this year to sustain growth and refresh its lineup.
By Dan Mihalascu
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