Toyota remains world's biggest car company

Toyota kept global sales steady and increased overall production in 2022, giving it a commanding lead as the world’s biggest car-maker.

The company reported 10,483,024 global sales last year, down 0.1 per cent – comprising 9,566,961 sales from Toyota, 766,091 from Daihatsu, and 149,972 from Hino Trucks.

Global production meanwhile finished 2022 at 10,610,604 vehicles across the Toyota (9,026,713), Daihatsu (1,408,795) and Hino (175,096) marques – up 5.3 per cent despite demand continuing to outpace supply.

Production outside of Japan (6,957,592 units, up 12.5 per cent) outpaced production inside of Japan (3,653,012, down 6.2 per cent) – with the domestic market hit harder by headwinds.

Toyota has already spoken about seeking a further production increase as high as 15 per cent this year, to get on top of wait lists.

“Despite the impact of parts supply shortages caused by the spread of COVID-19, increased demand for semiconductors, and other factors, global production was up year-on-year as a result of increased capacity and production optimisation in North America and Asia, a rebound from parts supply shortages associated with the spread of COVID-19 in the previous year, and other factors,” TMC said in a statement.

The Toyota Group extended its lead over closest rival the Volkswagen Group, which reported a 7.0 per cent drop in 2022 sales across its myriad brands to 8,262,800 units.

The Hyundai Motor Group including Kia and Genesis sold 6,848,198 units (up 2.7 per cent), edging the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance with approximately 6.3 million sales (down about 13.5 per cent). We say approximate because Mitsubishi only reports production numbers.

China’s SAIC Motor (parent of MG and LDV among others) reported 5.3 million sales, down 2.9 per cent, but recorded more than a million export for the first time, up 46 per cent.

We await sales results for Stellantis, Ford, and General Motors.

*Approximate

MORE: Toyota plans 15 per cent more production in 2023 to cut wait times