Toyota Becomes World's Top-selling Automaker For Three Consecutive Years

Toyota Motor Corp has maintained its position as the top-selling automaker globally for a third consecutive year. The company recently reported selling 10.5 million cars in 2022.

The Volkswagen Group, which earlier this month posted its lowest sales in over a decade, is ranked second. In 2022, the automaker sold 8.3 million vehicles. Supply networks were disrupted by the conflict in Ukraine and the Covid-19 lockdowns in China.

According to Toyota, its global sales, which include the truck division Hino Motors and the small-car manufacturer Daihatsu, fell 0.1 per cent as record exports of 8.6 million vehicles helped to make up for a 9.6 per cent decline in its domestic market to 1.9 million.

Like its competitors, the company suffered from supply problems relating to chips. However, it was able to grow global output by 5 per cent in 2022 thanks to strong demand in Asia, an expansion in manufacturing capacity, and optimisation in both Asia and North America.

S&P Global Mobility projects that Toyota will continue to outpace Volkswagen in 2023, selling 10.4 million light vehicles to the German automaker's 7.99 million, according to a report by Bloomberg. It states that Toyota is on track to sell more than 11 million light vehicles annually by the end of the decade, while the automaker's sales are expected to start recovering in 2024.

One of the researchers at S&P Global Mobility Yoshiaki Kawano believes that the effects of manufacturing limits will eventually lessen for both companies and overall, medium- to long-term trends indicate moderate recovery and expansion.

Koji Sato, the president of Lexus, was appointed CEO by Toyota Motor Corp., succeeding the long-serving Akio Toyoda. At a turning point, 53-year-old Sato assumes the leadership of Toyota. The automaker is receiving criticism for its decision to diversify its bets among many technologies rather than dive headfirst into electric vehicles. These bets include battery-based EVs, hybrid technology, hydrogen-powered automobiles, and conventional combustion vehicles.