Toyota runs and exceeds Volkswagen in sales

The Japanese automotive giant Toyota said he had recorded a decline in sales in 2024, but maintained the title of number one worldwide for the fifth consecutive year in front of the German rival Volkswaggen.

Last year, Toyota sold 10.8 million cars in the world in 2024, with a drop of 3.7%. However, this result is clearly higher than that of Volkswagen, whose world sales have stood short More than 9 million vehicles (-2.3%). And this despite Toyota had a difficult year, with a flexion of 20% of the group’s sales in Japan (in terms of units sold) due in particular to the references of the Prius hybrid model and the production suspensions after the discovery by the authorities of irregularities relating to certification tests.

Sales collapse in China

Toyota sales in China, a crucial market, they collapsed by 7% due to the acceleration of the competition of Chinese producers, including BYD, il electric car championwhich is leading a price war in a context of stagnant economy. But the competition of Chinese producers, who are constantly increasing their world market share, is also intensifying the pressure on a global scale: Byd has seen its world sales increase of 41% in 2024reaching 4.3 million vehicles, of which almost half 100% electric.

On the contrary, Toyota sold Less than 140,000 electric vehicles last year, remaining concentrated on Hybrid vehicles which combine internal combustion engines and electrical batteries (about 4.2 million hybrids sold).
For their part, two other Japanese manufacturers also suffered in 2024: Nissan, in serious financial difficulties, sold 3.35 million vehicles (-0.8%) and Honda compatriot saw its sales collapse at 3.8 Millions of units (-4.6%), while its global production fell by almost 11%.

Honda e Nissan

In December, Honda, the Japanese car industry giant, started negotiations with Nissan in view of one fusion, To which could be added Mitsubishi Motors And that could create the third world producer by 2026 with a single holding. The goal is to join forces to negotiate the strategic passage to electric vehicles, A niche dominated by the American Tesla and the Chinese producers: individually, neither of the two is able to match the annual results of Byd in terms of sales volumes. A sign of the continuous difficulties of Nissan: sales collapsed by 12.2% In China, a crucial market, and have restored to Japan.