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Toyota Motor(TM) said 9% more vehicles in the first quarter
than a year ago, giving the Japanese against the title of world’s
top automaker as its sales surpassed General Motors’ (GM’s)for
the first time. According to a company spokesman, TM sold 2.37
million vehicles, over 90,000 more than GM sold in the first
quarter.
Toyota’s success has been helped by the public’s
thirst for its hybrid technology and full lineup of fuel-efficient
cars at a time when the Detroit manufacturers were stacking
up
inventories of trucks and sport utility vehicles.
While the figures represent only quarterly sales resuls, they
foreshadow a tough challenge for GM as it fights to hold onto
its title as world’s top automaker a claim usually staked
on annual production figures.
Toyota has been gaining steadily on GM in recent year, and analysts
have been saying it is only a matter of time before it eclipses
its Detroit-based rival, which has seen its market share shrink
in the United State even as it leads sales in China.
‘‘Everybody on the road expects Toyota to overtake
GM in 2007,’’said Koji Endo, an analyst with Credit
Suisse in Tokyo. ‘I won’t say the trend is impossible
to reverse, but it’s extremely difficult.”
Toyota is ahead of GM in several ways, he said, including production
fuel-efficient models, developing new technology, boosting global
brand image, cutting costs and having high morale and unity
among its ranks.
‘‘Toyota has been a success in almost all the regions,
and is opening new plants.’ Endo said. ‘‘The
only region GM continue to be strong is China, and it has failed
almost everywhere else.’’
In 2006, Toyota’s global production surged 10 percent
to 9.018 million vehicles, while GM and its group automakers
produced 9.18.In the first quarter, Toyota made 2.37 million
vehicles worldwide, while GM had expected to produce 2.34 million.
Toyota says topping GM isn’t a key priority for the company.
‘‘Our global has never been to sell the most cars
in the world,” said Paul NOLASCO, a spokesman for the
Japanese company. “We simply want to be the best in quality.
After that, sales will take care of themselves.”
AYAKO Uchida, a GM spokesman in Japan, declined to comment on
the figures but said her company’s sales result were preliminary
and not yet final.
GM hasn’t released a forecast for this year, but Toyota
is shooting for global output of 9.42 million vehicles and sales
of 9.34 million units.
While GM has struggled to shore up earnings with job cuts and
plant closure, Toyota has expanded rapidly, thanks partly to
the popularity of its fuel-efficient cars, including the Camry,
Corolla and PRIUS gas-electric hybrid.
GM, meanwhile, cut production last year as high fuel prices
drove people away from its trucks and sport utility vehicles.
A copy of Toyota’s “global master plan” leaked
to the news media late last year calls for grabbing 15 percent
of the world car market by 2010 in the company’s quest
to unseat GM as the top producer.
*Culled from Market Watch &Associated Press reports
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