Toyota recorded a total of 2.33 million vehicles in 2021 while General Motors managed to post a total of 2.21 million units in the United States
Toyota Motor Corporation has outsold General Motors for the first time in the United States market as the Japanese auto major recorded a total of 2.33 million vehicles. Compared to the yearly sales the previous year of 2020, Toyota recorded a healthy 10 per cent increase in volumes. GM, on the other hand, managed a total of 2.21 million units.
The company has become the first foreign carmaker in history to achieve this feat by beating General Motors. It must be noted that the semiconductor issues did hamper production activities big time across the globe and compared to Toyota, General Motors and Ford Motor Company were heavily affected by the chip shortage.
While the Blue Oval, which exited the Indian market amongst a host of other foreign markets, has not revealed its final numbers, it is predicted to be lower than Toyota by a huge margin. Even between January and November 2021, Ford’s volume tally was more than four lakh units lower than Toyota in the passenger vehicle division.
General Motors record stood for nearly ninety years as it overtook from Ford as the top seller of passenger cars back in 1931 and never lost the lead until now. GM suspended operations at nearly half of its manufacturing units in North America due to the semiconductor issues as well and its yearly volumes took a tumble by 13 per cent compared to 2020.
Toyota also reduced its production in the North American continent but it has avoided major shutdowns by making changes to its production processes. In recent months, the chip shortage issues have eased a bit and carmakers are ramping up production. The probabilities of General Motors regaining the top spot from Toyota are high in the 2022 CY.
Another reason for Toyota overtaking GM was the faster distribution of vehicles and tweaking its operations to suit the market conditions. The issues surrounding semiconductors are expected to be solved only in a slow manner as every car market including India has been on a rough patch resultantly.