Toyota Motor Corp is poised to keep its title as the world’s best-selling vehicle manufacturer, beating Volkswagen AG (VW) for the fourth consecutive year after steady demand across North America and Europe helped sales and production reach new records last month.
Global sales — including that of subsidiaries Hino Motors Ltd and Daihatsu Motor Co — rose 12 percent from a year earlier to 986,262 units, the most ever for the month of November, the company said yesterday. The company’s worldwide production reached an all-time high at 1,067,446 units.
The world’s biggest vehicle maker has been making and selling an unprecedented number of cars throughout the year, further securing its dominance with hybrid cars as it pushes forward with ambitious plans to mass-produce electric vehicles (EVs) and catch up with Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc and China’s BYD Co (比亞迪).
Photo: EPA-EFE
However, Toyota was last week dragged into a scandal after an investigation found that Daihatsu had manipulated collision safety data dating as far back as 1989.
It is not yet clear how much the latest scandal would cost, in terms of output, money and customer trust. Third-party investigators warned that numerous Toyota and Daihatsu brand vehicles need to undergo safety inspections again to become certified properly, and that several models could be ordered off the road.
Meanwhile, as BYD is set to overtake Tesla as the world’s best-selling EV maker, hybrids are becoming increasingly dominant in Japan. They are expected to overtake all other powertrains, including combustion and diesel engines, in registered passenger vehicle sales by the end of the year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
Toyota said its hybrid sales rose 52 percent year-on-year last month, while battery EV sales increased by 227 percent.
In a sector still dominated by more familiar names like Toyota, Volkswagen and General Motors Co, Chinese manufacturers including BYD and SAIC Motor Corp (上海汽車) are making serious inroads. After leapfrogging the US, South Korea and Germany over the past few years, China now rivals Japan for the global lead in passenger car exports. About 1.3 million of the 3.6 million vehicles shipped from China as of October this year were electric.
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