The Toyota group sold 4.91m units in the first half of 2013, making it the world’s top car seller in the period for the second straight year.
Although sales volume dipped 1.2% from a year earlier in the January-June period, Toyota clung to the top spot thanks to robust performance in North America, Kyodo News reported.
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Toyota was followed by General Motors with 4.85m units, up 3.9%. Volkswagen was third with 4.7m units, up 5.6%.
While Toyota’s sales overseas gained 2.4% to a record 3.74m units, its domestic sales were down 11.3% at 1.17m units affected by the termination last September of the government subsidy programme for the purchase of environmentally friendly vehicles.
It is uncertain whether Toyota will be able to retain the top spot for the full year given slowing domestic sales and the performance of its international rivals in overseas markets.
In North America, Toyota’s sales grew 5.4% to 1.21m units as models such as the luxury sedan Avalon sold well, but the figure fell short of GM, which sold 1.64m units, up 7.7%.
In China, the world’s biggest auto market, Toyota’s sales dropped 5.8% to 417,000 units on the adverse affect of the Japan-China territorial row over the islands in the East China Sea and ensuing boycott of Japanese products since last year – in contrast with GM and Volkswagen, which performed better than a year earlier.
