Toyota leads 2013 global sales
The Toyota Motor Corp is maintaining their position as the world’s best-selling car company in 2013 however General Motors and Volkswagen are closing in on the Japanese car maker’s lead.
According to the latest data from January-September, Toyota sold 7.412 million vehicles during this period, up less than one percent when compared with the same period last year.
These group-wide global sales also include sales from Toyota’s affiliate brands: Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors Ltd.
When compared with the closest two contenders, the US giant General Motors sold 7.25 million vehicles, representing a 4.6 percent rise when compared to the same period last year, while Germany’s Volkswagen sold 7.03 million cars over the same period, up almost five percent when compared to 2012.
But the sales figures for Volkswagen exclude its Scania and MAN brands, which combined account for about 200,000 vehicles a year.
Volkswagen has previously stated that it intends to reach the 10 million sales mark before 2018 and to also become the top seller globally by that year as well.
The strongest overseas market for Toyota remains the US, with exports to the country rising nine percent year-on-year to just over 53,000 vehicles in September, seeing a strong demand for the RAV4 and Lexus IS models.
Overall Toyota’s global sales rose six percent from 832,000 a year ago, while in Europe the sales of Toyota and Lexus were down four percent to 407,072 units.
The third-quarter results will be announced on November 6, with analysts expecting Toyota to post an operating profit of 616 billion yen, which is just about double what it posted a year ago.
The analysts also expect Toyota to report a new record of 2.4 trillion yen – 24.7 billion dollars – in operating profit for the year ending in March 2014, more than 2.27 trillion yen higher than it achieved in the same period back in 2008.
