Toyota beats Volkswagen to become World's No.1 car seller in 2020

 

FILE PHOTO: A logo of Toyota is pictured at Bangkok Auto Salon 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand, July 4, 2019. Picture taken July 4, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

 

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Toyota Motor Corp overtook Germany's Volkswagen in vehicle sales last year, regaining pole position as the world's top selling automaker for the first time in five years as the pandemic demand slump hit its German rival harder.

 

Toyota said on Thursday its group-wide global sales fell 11.3% to 9.528 million vehicles in 2020. That compared with a 15.2 percent drop at Volkswagen to 9.305 million vehicles.

 

Automakers have suffered as coronavirus lockdowns have stopped people from visiting car showrooms and forced manufacturing plants to reduce or halt production.

 

Toyota, however, has weathered the pandemic better in part because its home market Japan, and the Asian region in general, have been less affected by the outbreak than Europe and the United States.

 

"Our focus is not on what our ranking may be, but on serving our customers" a Toyota spokeswoman said.

 

As demand for cars rebounds, particularly in China, Toyota, Volkswagen and other manufacturers are scrambling to tap growing demand for electric cars. Toyota said that the ratio of electric vehicle it sold last year grew to 23% of total sales from 20% in 2019.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-01-28

 

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Funny I've never really liked any of their cars...always ended up buying Hondas.

Glad to hear VW paying for scamming their customers. Good on 'Em

I rarely see a VW.

10 minutes ago, Chassa said:

I rarely see a VW.

 

Well, they did say the world...

30 minutes ago, Chassa said:

I rarely see a VW.

i see one everyday, but its from an era when vw made cars to last and not lie to buyers, my wife would not even look at toyota when we bought our cars

In terms of demand for electric cars, Telsa continues to be the leading producer. Beating its nearest competitor VW Group.

Toyota has instead opted for hydrogen and hybrid techs. 

( kind of like the "pizzaless pizza" mentioned in another TVA article in this edition)

Long term looks better for Telsa/VW sales than Toyota.