to defeat General Motors in the fight for the global car sales trophy. Through the first six months of 2008, Toyota Motor Co. sold 4.82 million vehicles, compared with 4.54 million for General Motors Corp. Last year, GM also was behind Toyota at the halfway mark but pulled out a victory by fewer than 4,000 cars and trucks for 2007. This year, however, it appears increasingly likely that GM, for the first time, will cede its title, as soaring gas prices, sagging consumer confidence and an over-reliance on SUVs and trucks hurt it in its most important market: home.
"I believe that this is the year Toyota finally takes the sales lead," said Dennis Virag, president of the Automotive Consulting Group in Ann Arbor, Mich. "Looking at the companies, at their strategies and portfolios, Toyota is just in a much stronger position than GM."
Although GM showed 10 percent year-over-year sales gains in the second quarter in its international markets, including a total increase of 20 percent across Brazil, Russia, India and China, it was down 20 percent in North America. The result was a 5 percent global sales decline for the quarter and a 3 percent drop since Jan. 1.
"There was not quite enough volume...in those emerging markets to offset weakness in North America, more specifically the U.S. market," said Michael DiGiovanni, GM's executive director of industry analysis. He added that "early indications are that (July) is going to be another challenging month" in the U.S.
Toyota, meanwhile, saw its total sales increase by 2.3 percent for the first six months of the year and 2 percent in the second quarter, when oil prices spiked and sent gasoline prices in the U.S. over US$4 a gallon. Unlike GM, Toyota has a mix of vehicles favoring the smaller, fuel-conserving cars American consumers now prefer over trucks. Through June, 59 percent of the vehicles it sold in the U.S. were cars, compared with 40 percent for GM.
In trading in New York on Wednesday, GM shares rose 30 cents, or 2.1 percent, to US$14.62.
With overall truck and SUV sales down 18 percent this year in the U.S., the industry has moved to shift product mix. Nearly all carmakers have faced shortages of small cars as consumers snap them up.
GM last month said it would make moves to cut annual truck production by 700,000, and Toyota said it would cease production of Tundra pickups and Sequoia large SUVs for three months to keep inventories low.
GM and Ford Motor Co. have announced plans to ramp up production of smaller cars while introducing new fuel-efficient models.
Although overall sales have been down in the U.S., Japan and Western Europe, most of the rest of the world is up. That's good news for GM, which sold 65 percent of its vehicles outside the country in the second quarter.
In the second quarter, overall worldwide sales for all carmakers reached 18.5 million, which puts the global market on pace to sell 72 million cars this year, an increase of 2.5 percent, or 1.7 million cars and trucks, according to GM.
