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Toyota model in a showroom: top spot defended
Photo: Eugene Hoshiko / dpa
Toyota has defended its top spot as the world's largest carmaker ahead of Volkswagen despite supply bottlenecks and production cuts.
Including the truck manufacturer Hino, which belongs to the group, and the small car specialist Daihatsu, the Japanese group delivered almost 10.5 million cars to customers in 2022.
That was 0.1 percent less than in the previous year, as Toyota announced.
Nevertheless, the group kept the competition at bay for the third year in a row.
The second-placed Volkswagen Group delivered only 8.3 million vehicles worldwide in 2022 due to the chip crisis, seven percent fewer than the year before.
Toyota kept its production at a high level in 2022.
It rose by 5.3 percent over the previous year to 10.61 million vehicles.
Thanks to stable logistics, the group initially got through the corona crisis better than the competition, but recently felt the semiconductor shortage more strongly and had to lower its production targets several times.
Almost all car manufacturers worldwide are now benefiting from the fact that the supply shortage is easing.
After the corona and chip crisis, however, the industry is now facing the next downturn.
High inflation and gloomy economic prospects unsettle customers.
Most recently, the South Korean Hyundai Group, which also owns the Kia brand, ranked third among the world's largest car manufacturers.
Together with Kia, Hyundai wants to surpass the threshold of seven million cars sold.
mmq/Reuters/dpa