Toyota retakes global vehicle sales crown
TOKYO - Toyota remained the top automaker in global vehicle sales after the first nine months of this year, selling nearly 7.5 million vehicles, outpacing rivals General Motors and Volkswagen.
Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday that global sales for the first three quarters totaled 7.498 million vehicles. Volkswagen AG of Germany sold 7.43 million vehicles, while GM sold 7.2 million vehicles, according to their figures released earlier this month.
Volkswagen overtook Toyota for January-June, the first time it had come out on top in such tallies. Its sales may suffer because of an emissions scandal, which hit last month.
Detroit-based GM was the top-selling automaker for more than seven decades until being surpassed by Toyota in 2008. GM retook the sales crown for one year in 2011, when a disaster struck Japan.