Toyota becomes the first global automaker in 2008
Toyota sold in 2008 a total of 8972 million vehicles in the world whereas the historical leader General Motors (GM) reported its sales dropped 21 percent in 2008 in North America. Total sales slumped 11 percent, the company said, according to Reuters. Shares of GM were up 4.29 percent or 15 cents to $3.65 each in premarket trading at 9:12 a.m. at the New York stock Exchange. Total global sales in the third quarter were 2.1 million, bringing year-to-date global sales to 6.7 million. In 2008, GM sold 5.37m vehicles outside the U.S., accounting for 64% of total global sales volume compared with 59% a year ago.
Though Toyota's group global sales for calendar year 2008 were down 4% year on year to 8.97m units, its first such dip in a decade, it comfortably beat General Motors which on Wednesday said it sold 8.35m last year. Toyota takes up the first global automotive manufacturer for 2008.
With combined 2008 worldwide sales of 8.972 million units, Toyota Motor (Toyota, Daihatsu, Hino) became the world’s top-selling OEM by volume, passing GM’s 2008 sales of 8.356 million units.
Worldwide sales of both automakers dropped in 2008, the Toyota Group’s down 4%, GM’s down 10.8%. Within the larger Toyota group, Toyota sales dropped 5% to 7.996 million units in 2008; Daihatsu (Toyota’s mini-car specialist) rose 4% to .866 million units; and Hino (the truck maker) sales rose 3% to .110 million units.
But a nearly 6 percent decline in sales in its home U.S. market apparently allowed Toyota to catch it, even though it wasn't a great year for its Japanese rival. Toyota suffering a 4 percent sales decline its own home market and a surprisingly weak 3 percent gain in its U.S. sales, which has become the largest market worldwide for Toyota products. It was the thinnest U.S. gain for Toyota since 2002, which has seen double-digit annual growth here the last three years.
However, while the latter showed a decrease in overall sales of -10.8% over the year 2008, with a fall of -36% in North America and 21% in Europe during the 4th quarter, Toyota has suffered a decrease of -4% over the same year. The Japanese had also exceeded its U.S. competitor in terms of number of cars produced for 2007.
Since its inception in 1937, Toyota has continued to make progress on the automotive market, while GM was already the first place before World Ford since 1931.
In 2000, the gap in sales between the two manufacturers was still 2.7 million vehicles. The strength of the Japanese manufacturer is the range of vehicles it offers low power consumption (the Prius, hybrid vehicle, is the best known) and its R & D efforts for the preservation of the environment (bioplastics, fuel cells etc.. ), two factors explaining its success in recent years.
The success of Toyota will not prevent the company to show a negative balance for this year, the first time since the end of the Second World War in Japan.
Ref:
Toyota Sales Results for 2008
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