Toyota ties GM in global sales
DETROIT (AP) - January 23, 2008 GM said it sold 9,369,524 vehicles worldwide last year, up 3
percent from 2006. Earlier this month, Toyota reported global sales
of 9.37 million vehicles, but the Japanese automaker did not
release a number down to the last vehicle.
"The race is too close to call," Mike DiGiovanni, GM's
executive director of global market and industry analysis said
during a conference call Wednesday with reporters and industry
analysts. "I don't think anybody knows at this point."
Detroit-based GM has held the title of world's largest automaker
since 1931, but Toyota's strong U.S. growth and GM's U.S. sales
decline helped Toyota move closer to the top spot in recent years.
John Middlebrook, GM vice president for global sales, service
and marketing operations, said sales in China, Russia and Brazil
helped drive the gain.
"This is the kind of emerging market growth that fuels our
global performance," Middlebrook said in a statement. "Customers
are responding to our fuel-efficient and dynamically-designed
product lineup around the world."
GM said 2007 sales were the second best global total in the
company's 100-year history and marked the third consecutive time,
and fourth time ever, that GM sold more than 9 million vehicles a
year.
Toyota's share of the U.S. market has more than doubled since
1990, when it controlled only 7.5 percent of the market with just
over 1 million in sales, according to Ward's AutoInfoBank. Its
sales have grown briskly in recent years, sometimes by double
digits, as people bought its smaller, fuel efficient cars with a
reputation for reliability. By 2007, Toyota controlled 16.3 percent
of the U.S. market, selling 2.6 million vehicles.
GM, while still the U.S. sales leader, has seen its U.S. market
share drop dramatically since 1990, when it controlled about 35
percent by selling nearly 5 million vehicles. Last year GM's share
was roughly 23.8 percent, with sales of 3.8 million vehicles.
GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner has pledged to
defend his company's title, but said it would not abandon its U.S.
strategy of reducing incentives and low-profit sales to rental car
companies in order to win.
"Great cars, smart marketing, growth in the emerging markets.
And hopefully that will keep us on top. If not, we'll come back to
work the next day and work even harder," Wagoner said earlier this
month.
The title in coming years likely will be decided by sales in
burgeoning markets such as China, Russia, South America and other
regions with a growing middle class.
Mature markets in North America and Europe, meanwhile, are
likely to post slower growth, analysts say, and Japan's auto market
is shrinking.
Toyota is setting up overseas plants to achieve growth in new
markets - aiming to sell 9.85 million vehicles worldwide this year,
up 5 percent from last year, under an ambitious plan it announced
last month. Toyota executives also said they projected better
vehicle sales in the U.S. this year.
Shoichiro Toyoda, a member of the founding family and former
Toyota president, said gaining the top spot in the auto industry
could be transient.
"We are not No. 1," he said when asked recently by The
Associated Press how he felt about becoming the world's biggest
automaker.
"It's just one moment," he said at a reception for auto
manufacturers this month. "We need to just keep working harder."
Other Toyota executives have also consistently brushed off
questions about becoming No. 1.
Some company officials acknowledge they are even nervous about
wresting the honors because of fears about a U.S. political
backlash reminiscent of the "Japan-bashing" in the 1980s and 90s,
when the nation was accused of taking jobs from American workers.
Earlier this month, Toyota deposed Ford Motor Co. as the No. 2
auto-seller in the U.S. in 2007.
GM shares rose 4 cents, or 0.17 percent, to $23.69 in morning
trading Wednesday, while Toyota's U.S. shares fell $1.97, or 2.03
percent, to $94.94.
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On the Net:
General Motors Corp.: http://www.gm.com
Toyota Motor Corp. http://www.toyota.com
