During the first quarter of this year, it was announced that Toyota surpassed General Motors to become the largest automaker but only for that period of time. But Automotive News recently reported that Toyota has already outsold the Detroit, Michigan contingent last year.
It was expected that Toyota will have to wait until the end of the year before it can claim the spot occupied by General Motors in 76 years. But recent figures quoted by the Detroit-based weekly publication Automotive News shows that Toyota has already toppled General Motors from its Number One spot since last year.
The publication reported that Toyota sold 128,000 units of automobiles more than General Motors last year. This development came after Automotive News found out that General Motors included in their sales output the number of vehicles sold by a Chinese company that they have a minority share in.
“A little-known Chinese microvan played a role in Toyota's victory,” says the publication on its website. This refers to the seven-seat microvan manufactured by a three-way business enterprise composed of General Motors, the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp and Liuzhou Wuling Automobile. General Motors included the number of vehicles sold by the venture under its own sales output even though it owns only a minor share.
Automotive News gave the credit of the 420,140 units that the business venture has sold to the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp since it owns 51 percent of the business entity. General Motors sale was then cut down to 8,679,860 units. This is less that Toyota’s sales output of 8,808,000. This gives the number one spot to Toyota in terms of sale.
General Motors though insists that they have done the right thing by including the sales of Wuling-branded vehicles in their sales report. “We own a majority of the legally available shares of the company. It's completely integrated in our China strategy,” says General Motors spokesman Tom Wilkinson. “That's why we count them,” he added further.
With the ongoing trend, Toyota is looking to surpass General Motors both in sales and in production output. Even a very efficient EBC Greenstuff brake component cannot stop the Japanese car manufacturer’s climb to the top of the auto industry.
Analysts though agree that losing the top spot may be beneficial to General Motors. Aaron Bragman, a research analyst for Global Insight based in Troy, Michigan, is one of those who believe that losing to Toyota may be beneficial to the Detroit-based car manufacturer. “Losing the crown as the world's largest automaker could even end up benefiting General Motors,” he said.
“There's nothing more motivational than losing your top stop. If it's going to take that to motivate the troops more than anything has already, I think it’s a boon to the company,” Bragman explained.
The title of being the world’s largest car manufacturer though is based on the number of vehicle produced not by the number of vehicles sold by a particular car manufacturer. This means that General Motors is still the largest car manufacturer to date. The carmakers stay on the top though is expected to last only until the end of the year. General Motors expects to sell 9.2 million for this year while Toyota projects 9.34 million. That means that Toyota will be producing more automobiles to fill that projected demand.
This year, Japanese automaker Toyota is expected to unseat General Motors as the world's largest automaker. The title of being the largest automaker is dependent on the number of vehicles produced annually by an automaker. Last year, both automakers reported their production goals and Toyota has the bigger goal.
Toyota is getting closer to overtake General Motors if sales last year are any indication. For 76 years, General Motors has been enjoying much success and has never been under considerable threat of being overtaken. But the Japanese automaker has proven to be a very worthy adversary.
The Auto Channel recently reported that last year, General Motors and Toyota are practically tied in sales. On Wednesday, General Motors announced that they have sold 9.37 million units of cars and light trucks all over the world. Toyota on the other hand also announced that they have also sold 9.37 million units of vehicles globally.
Reuters reported though that General Motors is still leading Toyota in terms of sale. The report cited a source saying that the Detroit automaker sold 9,369,524 units of vehicles lat year. On the other hand, the Japanese automaker known for their vehicles and auto parts as reliable as KYB shocks managed to sell about 9,366,000 vehicles.
The biggest factor in Toyota's rise to challenge General Motors is it increasing market share in the United States auto market. Being the largest auto market in the world, the United States proved to be the Waterloo of General Motors. While the Detroit automakers' sales in the other parts of the world increases, their market share in the United States continue to decrease.
From 1998, it was reported that General Motors' global market growth increased by 1.5 percent annually. Meanwhile, during that time, Toyota's growth rate is five times more. This means that the two automakers are now neck-to-neck. General Motors' chief sales analyst Mike DiGiovanni said: "We are very competitive here at GM and obviously we'd like to win."
"But I would say that what we are really focused on running our business for the long term profitably and growing. I think we are laying the foundation to grow where the growth is and laying the foundation to turn around in the U.S.," he added further.
The Detroit automaker is counting on expanding their production output in China and the Latin America to fight off the challenge by the Japanese automaker. According to their sales report, the automaker sold 5.5 million vehicles outside of the United States.
Toyota Motors have been very open about their plan of grabbing the number one spot from General Motors this year. And sadly, with the present turn of events for General Motors it is not impossible for it to lose its post to Toyota.
According to analysts for this year, Toyota Motors will succeed in overtaking General Motors and will become the new largest carmaker in the world. Looking back in the year 1931 when GM became the world’s numero uno, threats of toppling it down seems to be impossibility.
General Motors has been the world’s number one automaker for the past 70 years and if ever Toyota really do surpass GM that would have an intense psychological effect on the entirety of the US industry which is sadly to say the last manufacturing sector where Americans still lead.
One of the reasons cited for General Motors sudden plunged is its failure to adapt its production methods to meet the changing consumer tastes. General Motors have failed to realize that it would not always have the same edge that it has like in the year 1955 when four out of five cars in the world were US made and half of them were products of GM. This probably was one of the reasons why GM is in its dismal state right now since it has become too confident of its standing in the auto industry and failed to see the imminent danger that would challenge its position.
The edge of Toyota over General Motors is the fact that the Japanese automaker was concentrating on changing its production system to become more efficient and leaner. The complacency on the part of GM was countered by Toyota with relentless pursuit for excellence which resulted to the changing fortunes of the two companies. Although, it is wrong also to construe that GM products are deteriorating in quality but the main point is that the automaker has been very lax lately which has given the Japanese automaker the chance to grab most its market share.
Until the time comes that Toyota be officially proclaimed as the new number 1 automaker in the world, General Motors will continue to lead as the world’s largest carmaker in terms of vehicles produced and auto parts manufactured and that includes products like GM grille guards. The only question now is for how long?
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