By Michelle Krebs
Toyota displaced General Motors as the global leader in vehicles sales in 2008, a spot the Detroit automakers had held for 77 years.
Toyota sold 8.97 million vehicles worldwide in 2008; GM sold 8.35 million, it announced Wednesday morning. Toyota's sales slipped 4 percent in 2008 from 2007; GM's fell 11 percent.
"The story has yet to be written" as to whether Toyota will maintain that No. 1 spot, said GM's analyst Mike DiGiovanni in a Wednesday conference call on global sales with media and analysts.
DiGiovanni noted that Toyota was No. 1 in global sales in 2008 but the Japanese automaker has signaled that it will report its first operating loss in history. "We're focused on profitability," he said. "And I'm sure that's what Toyota is focused on as well."
"Everybody needs to be focused on viability and profitability," he added. "That matters more than being No. 1 or No. 5 in sales. All companies globally are facing the greatest risk and challenges that we've faced since the Great Depression."
He said GM's focus is on being profitable and viable in order to fund and support strong product and a balanced product portfolio in light of volatile energy prices across a global footprint.
DiGiovanni said GM lost out to Toyota during the No. 1 spot because GM is stronger than Toyota in the U.S. and Western Europe, two of the world's three biggest markets (the third being Japan where import sales are nearly nonexistent). The world's largest markets were hurt most from the global economic crisis.
Emerging markets weren't hurt as badly and many will still see growth in 2009, though at lower rates than in the recent past, DiGiovanni predicted. In 26 emerging markets, GM beat Toyota in 17 of them, he noted. GM outsold Toyota in all four BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China. "We're well positioned in emerging markets."
In incident, GM is increasingly relying on emerging markets. In 2008, 64 percent of its sales were outside of North America, up from 59 percent in 2007.
Source: www.autoobserver.com
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