Toyota stays No. 1

The fight for the pole position in the automotive world has been fierce between Toyota, Volkswagen and General Motors in recent times and even this year it will be the Japanese manufacturer that will be retaining the numero uno title it seems. With sales for the first first quarter of 2015 released, Toyota continues to be the leader in vehicle sales with 2.52 million units sold globally, followed by Volkswagen and GM.

Toyota has been the global leader in vehicle sales for three consecutive years now after bouncing back from the Tsunami aftermath in its home market in 2011. In terms of year-on-year performance though, the manufacturer saw a drop of 2 percent in volumes with the Japanese market lagging in growth. Coming in second was Volkswagen that sold 2.49 million vehicles in the first quarter of the year and saw a growth of 1.8 percent compared to the same period last year.

GM, on the other hand, was third coming close to the German giant with 2.40 million vehicles sold while year-on-year growth was up by 1.9 percent. The immense growth comes despite the car makers facing turbulent times. Toyota faced a massive recall scenario in 2009 in the US and the company took a step back from its ambitious plans and instead concentrated on cutting costs and building common vehicle platforms that offer higher economies of scale.

For GM, the ignition switch fiasco turned out to be disastrous with the company recalling products globally. Volkswagen though has been steadily growing in the past years making it to the second spot. All the three auto giants have been growing like clockwork in recent years with the newer markets China and India being major growth prospects. While sales may not be as optimistic for either brands in India, the People’s Republic has been posting impressive figures for the manufacturers and remains one of the high potential markets in the long term.