Today, the Japanese automaker Toyota announced that in 2021 its sales amounted to 10.5 million vehicles. Thus, the company retained its first place in the world in car sales, followed by the German Volkswagen with 8.9 million units.
Toyota’s annual report released today says that “the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic last year was less than in 2020.” As a result, sales of all Toyota Motor models worldwide totaled 10.5 million, up 10.1% from 2020. Toyota sales in Japan amounted to 2.1 million vehicles, outside of Japan – 8.4 million. The total volume of Toyota Motor production amounted to 10 million vehicles, which is 9.4% more than a year earlier. Thus, Toyota retained its leadership in the global car market, which, after a break, it returned at the end of 2020.
Only the German concern Volkswagen could compete with Toyota in terms of global sales in 2021. However, after the VW report two weeks earlier, there was little chance of this: due to ongoing problems with the supply of chips, global sales of VW fell to a 10-year low, amounting to 8.9 million vehicles. For its part, Toyota has largely managed to mitigate the impact of the chip shortage, though it also said that “global shipments declined in December due to the negative impact of component supply disruptions and insufficient supply of semiconductors.” The Japanese company also warned that “the supply situation remains uncertain, so we continue to do everything in our power to minimize this negative effect.”
In 2021, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance took third place in terms of car sales in the world with 7.8 million vehicles.
In 2008, Toyota for the first time became the largest automaker in the world by sales, displacing the American concern General Motors, which had been in the lead for about 70 years, from the first place. From 2008 to 2018, Toyota was in first place, losing to GM only once in 2011. However, at the end of 2018, Volkswagen became the largest automaker in the world, increasing sales largely due to its active policy in China.