Tokyo (AFP)

The Japanese giant Toyota took last year from the German Volkswagen the first place in the global automotive market by volume, by selling about 9.53 million vehicles of all brands of the group, according to figures released Thursday.

This is the first time since 2015 that Toyota has returned to the top of this ranking.

The Volkswagen Group sold 9.3 million vehicles (-15.2%) last year, according to figures released earlier this month.

Pandemic obliges, the sales in volume of Toyota weakened appreciably last year (-11.3% over one year), but in smaller proportions than those of its great rival.

"Despite the Covid-19 pandemic (...), Toyota has been able to continue its activities by putting in place comprehensive prevention measures against infections and by working with its partners, including its suppliers and dealers", commented the group in a press release.

While the Volkswagen group depends more heavily on the European market, which has been severely affected by the health crisis, the Japanese group has notably benefited from a solid increase in its sales in China (+ 10.9% last year for its Toyota and Lexus).

Volkswagen has also embarked on a strategic shift since 2018, placing more emphasis on its profitability - lower than that of Toyota - than on volumes.

- Persistent clouds -

The combined sales of Toyota and Lexus last year were down 12.7% in North America and 8.5% in Europe.

In addition to these two brands, the Toyota group also includes its subsidiaries Daihatsu (small vehicles) and Hino Motors (trucks).

The group is due to publish its results for the third quarter of 2020/21 on February 10.

Last November, it had significantly raised its annual forecasts, thanks to a clear recovery in its activity.

The Japanese automotive giant is targeting an annual net profit of 1.420 billion yen (11.6 billion euros), a target almost doubled compared to its previous forecast in August, but which would nevertheless mark a very sharp decline (-30%) compared to 2019/20.

It also anticipates an annual operating profit of 1.3 trillion yen (10.3 billion euros) for an operating margin of 5%, with sales of 26,000 billion yen (212 billion euros), which would mean a decline of 13% of its annual turnover.

Volkswagen announced last Friday a 2020 operating profit of around 10 billion euros, a drop of nearly 50% over one year.

"Toyota is gradually recovering from the impact of the new coronavirus" and "is doing better than its rivals", recently commented to AFP Satoru Takada, automotive analyst at the research firm TIW in Tokyo.

The analyst, however, cautioned against being overly optimistic about the outlook this year for the Japanese auto industry as a whole.

"The current shortage of semiconductors is forcing manufacturers to reduce their production levels, a new wave of the virus is affecting many countries in Europe and elsewhere," Takada said.

"The strong yen is another source of concern" because it could weigh on the profits of Japanese manufacturers abroad, he added.

- Severe withdrawal of Renault-Nissan -

Japanese Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, allies of French Renault, also released their annual sales volumes on Thursday, which fell much more than those of Toyota.

Nissan's global sales sank 22.2% to 4 million units, with peaks of -32.4% in North America and -28.3% in Europe.

Its sales also fell in China (-5.8%).

Those of Mitsubishi Motors tumbled 33.1% to nearly 820,000 units.

Renault for its part had announced a drop of 21.3% in volume sales in 2020, to 2.9 million passenger cars sold.

In total, volume sales of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Motors alliance stood at 7.7 million units in 2020, a drop of 24% over one year.

Even before the coronavirus crisis that hit the global automotive market - down by more than 14% in 2020 -, the three members of the Alliance had decided to focus on improving their profitability rather than on the race for volumes.

© 2021 AFP