Toyota inches past GM in global vehicle sales

[Alberto Michelatti]

Toyota inches past GM in global vehicle sales.

Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:37 AM BST

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Toyota took a step closer to unseating General Motors as the world's biggest automaker, outselling its U.S. rival by around 90,000 units in the first quarter.

Toyota has been widely expected to challenge 99-year-old GM this year for the top spot in global sales -- a position the Detroit behemoth has held for 76 years -- but the milestone came surprisingly early, industry watchers said.

Both companies reported record sales for January-March, but Japan's top carmaker inched past GM as it ate into the U.S. group's market share on its home turf.

Toyota, maker of the Camry sedan -- the United States' most popular car -- said on Tuesday its global vehicle sales rose 9 percent to 2.35 million units in the quarter.

The tally includes cars sold under the Lexus luxury brand and the youth-oriented Scion badge, as well as vehicles from units Daihatsu Motor and Hino Motors.

GM, which sells cars and trucks under a dozen brands including Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Opel and Saab, sold 2.26 million units during the same period, for a 3 percent rise.

"Toyota has had aggressive new model introductions all over the world," said Koji Endo, auto analyst at Credit Suisse Securities in Tokyo.

"It's achieved growth everywhere in the world, whereas GM's significant growth has only been in China," he added.

Toyota has won fans across the world with affordable cars seen as reliable, durable and fuel-efficient while GM continued to rely heavily on high-margin gas-guzzlers to pull it out of financial difficulties.

To keep up with soaring demand, Toyota is adding production capacity in almost every corner of the world from San Antonio to St. Petersburg, with an internal goal of taking 15 percent of the global car market by 2010.

GM estimated its share in the first quarter at 13.0 percent, down a tenth of a percentage point from a year ago.

This year, Toyota has plans to sell 9.34 million vehicles as a group, up 6 percent from 2006. GM does not provide a global sales forecast.

Toyota dwarfs its rival in almost every other measure. Its market capitalisation, at $225 billion (112 billion pounds), is more than 12 times that of GM's.

Toyota expects to post a net profit of 1.55 trillion yen for the business year ended last month, probably more than any other Japanese company, while GM is struggling to emerge from the red. GM lost $3 billion in 2006 and $12 billion the year before.

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.

Alberto.

Edited April 25, 2007 by Alberto Michelatti