Toyota Motor regains top spot from General Motors
29 Jan 2013
Toyota Motor Corp overtook General Motors Co and Volkswagen AG, in global sales last year, staging a fine recovery in the face of natural disasters and record recalls that tarnished its reputation for quality.
Toyota's global sales increased 23 per cent to a record 9.75 million units in 2012, against the 9.29 million units sold by GM and 9.07 million at Volkswagen.
The maker of the Camry sedan is looking to demand from the US, to help achieve its projected 9.91 million in annual sales this year, helped by a weakening yen that made it more competitive against South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co.
The company may also be helped by a recovery in China which may offset a projected decline in Japanese demand after government incentives expired in September.
According to analysts, Toyota had fully recovered from the earthquake and natural disasters a year earlier. They add Japanese carmakers including Toyota would continue to benefit from an extremely strong US market.
Toyota was down 0.6 per cent to 4,315 yen at the close in Tokyo. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average moved down to 0.9 per cent.