Toyota world's largest car manufacturer for third year running

Volkswagen also sells more than 10 million

Japanese car manufacturer Toyota (including Lexus, Daihatsu and Hin) is the world’s largest manufacturer for the third year in a row, selling 10.23 million cars (+3 %). Only the Volkswagen group (containing Audi, Seat, Skoda and other brands) also managed to sell more than 10 million cars, for the first time ever: the German car concern reached 10.14 million cars sold (+ 4.2 %).

American General Motors (containing Opel, Vauxhall, Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac) has sold 9.92 million cars, which is a 2.1 % increase. South Korean Hyundai-Kia and American Ford are fourth and fifth, and although they have not published their numbers so far, they certainly are in no position to threaten the top three. The French car manufacturers are lower on the list: PSA (Peugeot-Citroën-DS) sold 2.938 million cars, Renault (+ Dacia) sold 2.712 million cars.

VW to be the biggest in 2015?

Until the financial crisis hit, General Motors had been the world’s largest car manufacturer for several decades, but Toyota took over in 2008. The Japanese company lost the number one spot in 2011, when an earthquake and tsunami ravaged Japan and its production lines were halted for a while. That was the last time GM took first place.

Toyota’s dominance may end in 2015 though, as they have forecast a possible 1 % sales drop to 10.15 million cars. Volkswagen, on the other hand, is quite ambitious: the Germany company wants to build several new production units in China. Toyota on the other hand will not build any new factories in the next year, spending more time “strengthening its competitiveness instead of a race for quantity”, a spokesperson said.