Toyota: 2016’s No. 2 Automaker
Can it stay near the top amid fierce competition?
May 3, 2017
1. Japanese automaker Toyota, founded in 1937, produced 10.21 million vehicles in 2016, according to Forbes.
2. This was an increase of 1.3% from 2015, when Toyota also produced more than 10 million cars.
3. Toyota had ranked as the world’s biggest producer of vehicles from 2012 through 2015. (General Motors held the top spot before then.)
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4. Toyota’s parent company, Toyota Group, also has a wide range of production partnerships with or ownership stakes in various other automakers.
5. This includes a number of minor brands across Asia (such as Perodua in Malaysia), for which Toyota produces vehicles as well.
6. These figures, if included as a total, would put Toyota in the lead, ahead of VW, but Toyota does not report them as part of Toyota production.
7. Toyota’s management has also had to contend with a number of its own scandals in recent years, such as the acceleration problem.
8. The company claims that in the aftermath, unlike VW, it is emphasizing quality assurance over production expansion targets.
9. Toyota argues that this quality reliability, not a hallmark of its early rise of prominence, will ensure its continued dominance in the global market.
Sources: The Globalist Research Center, Forbes and Bertel Schmitt
Takeaways
Toyota had ranked as the world’s biggest producer of vehicles from 2012 through 2015.
Toyota had to contend with a number of scandals in recent years, such as the acceleration problem.
Toyota claims that unlike VW, it is emphasizing quality assurance over production expansion targets.