Toyota said Monday its group sales in 2010 rose, enabling the firm to narrowly retain its title as the world's biggest automaker despite a global safety crisis that damaged its brand image. But analysts warn that after a year that saw the recall of millions of vehicles, a wave of lawsuits and record fines, the company is likely to soon surrender that lead as it battles to regain consumer trust overseas.
In 2008 Toyota ended General Motors' 77-year reign as the world's largest automaker but the road has been a bumpy one for the Japanese giant, facing the impact of the economic crisis, recalls and recently a strong yen.
Despite such challenges Toyota's global sales rose eight percent year-on-year to 8.418 million vehicles, narrowly beating the 8.39 million sold by a resurgent General Motors in 2010.
"Being number one in term of sales is not important for us," Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco told AFP. "Our objective is to become number one with the customer, in terms of service and customer satisfaction."
The Toyota group, including small car producer Daihatsu Motor and truckmaker Hino Motors, saw its Japanese sales jump 10 percent while foreign sales rose seven percent.
Toyota Motor alone sold 7.528 million vehicles, up eight percent from the previous year. The firm's Prius hybrid broke the Japanese sales record for a single car model in 2010, helped by a popular government subsidy for green vehicles, according to a Japanese industry group.
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