Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp overtook Germany’s Volkswagen in vehicle sales a year ago, recovering shaft position as the world’s top selling automaker for the first time in five years as the pandemic demand slump hit its German opponent harder.
Toyota said on Thursday its group-wide global sales fell 11.3% to 9.528 million vehicles in 2020. That contrasted and a 15.2 percent drop at Volkswagen to 9.305 million vehicles.
Automakers have suffered as Covid lockdowns have prevented individuals from visiting car showrooms and constrained manufacturing plants to decrease or end production.
Toyota, notwithstanding, has weathered the pandemic better to some degree since its home market Japan, and the Asian region in general, have been less influenced by the outbreak than Europe and the United States.
“Our focus is not on what our ranking may be, but on serving our customers” a Toyota spokeswoman said.
As demand for cars rebounds, especially in China, Toyota, Volkswagen and different producers are scrambling to tap developing demand for electric vehicles. Toyota said that the ratio of electric vehicle it sold a year ago developed to 23% of total sales from 20% in 2019.