TOKYO (AP) — The race between Toyota (TM) and General Motors (GM) for the title "world's biggest automaker" is coming down to the wire, with Toyota saying Thursday that its global sales last year totaled 9.37 million vehicles.
That's just above the 9.3 million vehicles that GM has estimated it would sell in 2007. The Detroit-based automaker, which has led the world in annual sales for 76 years, is expected to release its final sales tally for the year soon.
Regardless of which automaker sold more vehicles last year, the rivalry between the two is far from over as the global auto industry is shifting its focus to new burgeoning markets, including China, Russia, South America and other regions where a growing middle class is expected to snatch up cars.
GM is ahead of Toyota in China, where the Detroit-based automaker's sales rose 19% last year to 1.03 million vehicles, it said Thursday. Toyota is trying hard to catch up, expanding production in China.
Mature markets in North America and Europe, meanwhile, are likely to post slower growth, analysts say, and Japan's auto market is shrinking.
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Toyota is setting up overseas plants to achieve growth in new markets — aiming to sell 9.85 million vehicles worldwide this year, up 5% from last year. Under a plan announced last month, Toyota executives said they projected better vehicle sales in the United States this year as well.
Shoichiro Toyoda, a member of the founding family and former Toyota president, said gaining the top spot in the auto industry could be transient.
"We are not No. 1," he said when asked recently by the Associated Press how he felt about becoming the world's biggest automaker.
"It's just one moment," he said at a reception for auto manufacturers earlier this week. "We need to just keep working harder."
Other Toyota executives have also consistently brushed off questions about becoming No. 1.
Some company officials acknowledge they are even nervous about taking the title because of fears about a U.S. political backlash reminiscent of the "Japan-bashing" in the 1980s and '90s, when the nation was accused of taking jobs from American workers.
Such an approach may say more about Japanese cultural tendency toward self-effacement and belie the aggressive growth plan Toyota has chiseled over the years.
After the first nine months of last year, Toyota was — at 7.05 million vehicles sold worldwide — just trailing GM's sales of 7.06 million vehicles for the same period.
One of Toyota's biggest advantages is its reputation for producing fuel-efficient models. Toyota has marked booming sales lately on the popularity of the Camry sedan and the big image boost it has gotten from the Prius gas-electric hybrid — at a time when soaring gas prices have dramatically boosted their appeal.
General Motors has been fiercely fighting back, boosting its overseas business and could still keep the top industry spot.
Toyota Motor's group companies sold 7.1 million vehicles overseas last year, a 10% jump from the previous year, offsetting a 4% decline in sales in Japan at 2.26 million vehicles, the Japanese automaker said. The overall global vehicle sales last year were up 6% from the previous year.
Toyota has long beaten General Motors in profitability, enriching its coffers with solid sales in recent years at a time when GM has been struggling, shuttering plants and slashing jobs.
GM holds the industry record in annual global vehicle sales with 9.55 million vehicles it sold in 1978.
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