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The Japanese car maker Toyota Motor Corporation reigns as king of sales in the global auto industry sector stripping General Motors of Detroit, USA its crown that it held for 77 years.
Sales records show that Toyota sold 8.972 million cars and trucks in 2008 globally ahead by as much as 616000 units of GM’s final count of 8.356 million vehicles.
The transfer of glory lacks luster though as every car manufacturer is hoping for recovery and better picture in their sector.
The global financial crisis played a major role in the race. The global sales of the auto industry drop by 3.5 million vehicles. Toyota suffered a 4% drop in sales while GM (gmautoblog.com) had an 11% decline.
The US carmaker is pouring all its effort on cutting cost of its operations and copes with the worst situation it has ever been in. GM is to submit a proposal on restructuring its line to Washington by the end of March so they can continually benefit from the loan that they received from the government recently.
GM is depending on loans from different governments across the globe to push its sales up. If all goes well, they will be able to improve their sales figures by 1 million units in 2009.
The months ahead is still very bleak for GM as it still expects dismal sales in the first quarter of this year. It revised its forecast from selling 10.5 to 12 million vehicles to only 10.5 million units this year.
Economists predict that the car sales may still experience a slump and sees recovery by 2012 the soonest. During the past decades, vehicle sales in the US average around 16 million but it took a dive to 13.24 million in 2008.
In the mean time, it seems that Toyota’s more fuel efficient, small cars are appealing more to the consumers.
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