It hasn’t been a good year for Japanese automakers, with the Japanese earthquake earlier in the year and more recently, floods in Thailand disrupting production, schedule and plans. All this has certainly lost them a fair bit of ground in terms of sales and expansion.
Toyota, the world’s number one automaker, looks set to lose the most – the company is set to cede the top spot in global new-vehicle sales in 2011 to the resurgent General Motors, according to reports. Toyota was No. 1 for the past three years, but now looks certain to drop to third place after the Asian disasters forced the company to cut production at home and abroad.
GM’s global sales for the January-September period rose 9% on the year to 6.79 million units, and with sales in Q4 on track to outpace the 2.17 million units recorded in same 2010 period, the US automaker’s full-year total is likely to exceed nine million units. This number would be 20% above the figure for 2009, when the company filed for bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen is expected to advance one spot to second place, with group sales surging 14% on the year to 6.17 million units in the first nine months of 2011. In 2010, Toyota and GM were the only carmakers to achieve more than eight million units sold – VW is positioned to reach that milestone for the first time this year, helped by double-digit sales growth in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific, the reports say.
As for Toyota, its January-September sales slid 9% on the year to 5.77 million units, and with the effects of the Thai floods set to impact the October-December figures, it looks unlikely that Toyota will narrow the gap with GM and VW, which have also enjoyed a head start the world’s largest market, China.
Elsewhere, Hyundai, which surged past Ford in 2010, is on pace to consolidate its position thanks to robust sales in the US, China and other key markets – the company has already upgraded its sales forecast for the full year to at least 6.5 million units, from the 6.33 million units projected, the reports add.
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so the battle is rep from US, Europe & Asia!
it’s about time, toyota need to start living up to their previous moto: MOVING FORWARD
Got a.. they tried it before, moving forward without you pressing on the accelerator.
Too bad for Toyota, they have been warned, and yet they rested on their laurels.
With current crop of cars, it’s future doesnt seem very bright, even the FT-86 isnt as inspiring as first concept. It should had retain a similar engine with the inspiring Supra 2JZ V6, instead of a mere 2 litre boxer that does not even have a turbo charger.
Too bad for global only except Msia……here they dont care as long as it is toyota
Correction: Supra’s 2JZ is inline-6
thanks for that………
Global mentality is not same with Msian mentality….difficult to changed…
padan muka for a company that being arrogant and disrespect buyers by rolling out crappy product, ie. pointless facelift and continued using old technologies.
shows that americans really listens to their media. with the hype of toyota recalls and etc. pity.
The entire Recall frisco is not like what we think.
The Great Toyota Recall started when GM & Ford get into financial difficuties & require federal fund rescue during 2008 US Financial Crisis, how else to save GM & Ford from further problem ? get rid of their biggest rival aka “Toyota”.
Msian really listens to toyota salesman……hahahahahh….
I think Toyota worldwide is ok. If not for the unforseen disasters they will still be there. They will recover, no problem.
However UMW Toyota is the one who needs a kick in the butt. They should stick their heads out of their Malaysian corporate office sometime. Then they will see the koreans and germans right at their doorstep.
go go VW!
GO VW!
watch out arrogant toyota!! even hyundai is gonna overtake you soon!!
that’s the price to pay for treating your customers like dirt by offering overpriced outdated empty shells with facelift after facelift only!!
you can only fool 3rd world minded ppl in msia but not the whole world!!
Goo gooo Goooo TOYOTA..Go to no 1
Gooo TOYOTA…GO TO No 1
Padan muka toyota. Ni lah akibat harga tak jujur pada customer.
Yeah, serves you right, Toyota. You deserved to go down to No.3 spot globally due to your arrogant ways of doing business and resting on your laurel. Facelift after facelift and offering only 4 speed auto for Toyota vehicles in Malaysia is not what Malaysians want.
We shouldn’t blame Toyota, blame umw instead. Toyota in Japan is already far in the front.4 speed is only in Malaysia. Again, in Japan, Honda is actually not popular at all, they are no where to be seen, only in Malaysia, only Malaysians crave for honda.
where’s Honda?
where’s the korean junk?
mazda still the best…mazda3 & mazda6 yummy…
Look at toyota cars nowadays..,the vios, avanza, corolla, camry,the innova….all the designw look lacklustre compared to the likes oh hyundai,kia..even proton designs like have more appeal, the saga is good looking,engine ok..exora is space space space and worth its price and looks….sometimes i look at the back of the vios dugong i wonder how the heck can the japs design such an ugly back…engine is jusrpt the same vvti..whic is losing advantage as competitors catch up..even cps is comparable if not better..qualitywise…we had the avanza.and regretted we didnt wait for the exora..toyota slot malaysians in the same category as the indonesins sad to say,but our appetite is more demanding….the decline of toyota shows two things..the competitirs caught up or toyota is losing its shine…lets hope toyota can offer something better in the future..one reason jap brands like sony is losing is bevause they dobt understsnd the needs foreign consumets..they think if the japs like weird and box designs the other aliens in SEA will jolly accept it..they wrte wrong..look at samsung and kia..they have no qualms having foreigners in the design and marketimg if their products.in A short time they conquered large segments of the auto and smartphone market..sony tried putting ang moh as ceo and they fored him in short time..olympus had an ang moh as ceo who tried to solve the corrupt practices of the japanese management and they fired the ang moh and get screwed anyway..macam mana ni…
Aiyooo…aren’t we applying the “Look East Policy” which means to Japan & Korea mainly. That is why they are pretty arrogant to us and think what they do is the best and we should follow them no matter what. Unfortunately, the two disasters does make them more arrogant. Shouldn’t we start to source other alternative and making globalisation a standard practice? Well, we could introduce new LEP “Look Everywhere Policy”…
Not only caused by the act of god, Toyota sales had been plunge by Korean car in First world country and China car in Third world country.
While GM and VW still have their own strong hold in their own based and luxury segment.
go vw …. sorry to say i am a fan boy.. .but their car is really what it means to be … ! sorry for toyota fan boy …. the only car i see as a “true innovative “car is only prius …
So.. Hyundai is what… No.4 or 5?