Toyota loses top-selling carmaker crown

TOKYO: Toyota lost its crown as the world’s top-selling automaker in 2016, company figures showed yesterday, with the Japanese giant overtaken by Volkswagen (VW) as the industry prepares for an uncertain trade environment under new US president Donald Trump.

The German automaker moved back into the top spot despite being hit by a massive emissions cheating scandal that rocked its reputation.

The carmaker, once a paragon of German industry, was plunged into its deepest-ever crisis after it emerged in September 2015 that it installed emissions-cheating software in millions of diesel engines worldwide. However, the crisis seemed to have little effect on the firm’s standing with drivers as it announced this month that annual sales rose 3.8% in 2016.

The results were boosted by strong performance in China which helped push total sales to 10.3 million, after slipping to 9.93 million in 2015. VW group also includes the brands Audi, Porsche and Skoda.

Toyota said yesterday it sold 10.175 million vehicles worldwide last year, a 0.2% increase.

The annual figures come as the industry faces an uncertain outlook year with Trump threatening punitive tariffs on imports into the US in a bid to force them to manufacture and hire there.

Trump targeted Toyota in one his fiery tweets, criticising its ongoing project to build a new factory in Mexico and threatening it with painful tariffs.

Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported yesterday that Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda will meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday, ahead of the latter’s scheduled summit next week with Trump.

Toyota said it could not comment on the report, while Japan’s chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga would not confirm it. – AFP