Toyota continues to lead in global car sales

The Japanese company Toyota topped the list of car sales in the world during the year 2021, in a reflection of the giant company’s ability to maintain production volume despite the disruptions to supply and shipping chains during the past year. The Japanese company said on Friday that its sales, which also include subsidiaries Daihatsu Motors and Hino Motors, rose 10 percent to 10.5 million vehicles last year. And according to Bloomberg news agency, the German company Volkswagen came in second place, with sales of 8.88 million cars during the year. Toyota leads global car sales in 2021 for the second year in a row, after topping the list in 2020, for the first time in five years. Bloomberg stated that Toyota’s ability to monitor supply chains and provide the semiconductors needed for the auto industry allowed it to produce and sell record numbers of cars over the past year, while Volkswagen’s sales fell in 2021 to their lowest rate in ten years due to problems related to supply chains.

Toyota’s results came at a time when it announced more production suspensions last week, on January 27, 28 and 31. According to what was reported by the “Bloomberg” news agency, the suspensions will cause a loss in production of about 93,000 vehicles, compared to 65,000 units the day before. The company added that the stoppage will continue to affect 19 lines in 11 factories. Toyota added another production day in February due to the release of spare parts.

Production suspensions come due to supply issues such as chip shortages, as well as coronavirus-related lockdowns inside and outside Japan.

It is noteworthy that, at the beginning of the year, Toyota announced its superiority over its counterpart General Motors in the United States in 2021, which is the first time that the Detroit-based automaker has not topped the annual sales of American cars since 1931.

Toyota said it sold 2.332 million vehicles in the United States in 2021, compared with 2.218 million vehicles sold by General Motors. General Motors sales in the United States fell 13 percent in 2021 and 43 percent in the fourth quarter, while Toyota sales rose 10 percent for the year as a whole.