Toyota Motor Corp. kept its lead over General Motors Co. and Volkswagen Group this year, January-September global sales figures showed, as the Japanese carmaker closes in on a record annual profit. Toyota’s group-wide sales totaled about 7.412 million vehicles, up less than 1 percent from the same period a year ago, the company said on Monday, as strong U.S. sales offset slowdowns in Europe, Thailand and China. Toyota’s group wide total includes sales at affiliates Daihatsu Motor and Hino Motors.
GM sold 7.25 million vehicles during the same January to September period, up 5 percent year-on-year, while VW rose 5 percent to 7.03 million vehicles, according to figures released earlier this month.
Volkswagen’s sales figure, however, excludes its Scania and MAN brands. Scania sold about 56,220 vehicles through September. The Scania and MAN brands typically account for a combined 200,000 vehicles in a full year. VW aims to be No. 1 in global sales by 2018.
Toyota regained the global sales crown in 2012 after slipping to third place behind GM and VW in 2011. The fall followed natural disasters in Japan and Thailand. Previously, Toyota had been on top from 2008 through 2010. Analysts expect Toyota to post 2.4 trillion yen ($24.7 billion) in operating profit for the year ending March 2014, more than the record 2.27 trillion yen it achieved in the year ended March 2008, as the weaker yen makes exports profitable.
For the full year, Toyota, together with Daihatsu and Hino, expects to sell 9.96 million vehicles, up 2 percent from 2012. Toyota, which will announce its July-September results on Nov. 6, is expected to post an operating profit of 616.5 billion yen, nearly double what it posted a year ago.
In September, Toyota’s monthly group wide global vehicle sales rose 6 percent from a year ago to 832,000 vehicles. Toyota said September exports to the United States from Japan rose 9 percent from a year ago to about 53,130 vehicles as U.S. demands for the RAV4 and Lexus IS are strong. In Europe, nine-month sales of Toyota and Lexus were down 4 percent to 407,072, according to industry association ACEA.
