Toyota tops global car sales with 10.5M in 2015

Japanese automaker Toyota topped the global auto industry, with 10.5 million sales in 2015, according to company figures released Wednesday. 

Toyota touted the tally, which put the company ahead of German automaker Volkswagen’s 9.9 million car sales. Volkswagen became embroiled last year in an auto emissions scandal after U.S. regulators accused the company of cheating federal pollution standards for cars. 

Detroit-based General Motors was the top U.S. automaker, tallying 9.8 million sales. 

{mosads}GM was followed by Ford, which had over 2.6 million sales in 2015, and Fiat Chrysler, which sold more than 1.7 million vehicles last year. 

Toyota said its 2015 sales were a 0.8 percent dip from 2014 totals, though they were still enough to claim the global auto crown for the year. 

The company’s figures included 9.1 million worldwide sales in 2015 for its main Toyota brand, plus 794,000 for Japanese subsidies Daihatsu and Hino. 

Volkswagen, meanwhile, downplayed its decrease from 10.1 million worldwide sales in 2014 to 9.9 million last year. 

“Delivering almost ten million vehicles is an excellent result, particularly in view of the continued challenging market situation in some regions as well as the diesel issue in the final quarter of last year”, Volkswagen CEO Matthias Müller said in a statement posted on the German automaker’s website.  

“While developments on markets in Brazil and Russia had a noticeable impact on deliveries by our brands, we made advances in Europe,” he continued. “We also recorded further growth in the North America region and in the USA.” 

General Motors officials touted their 0.2 percent bump from 2014 to 2015 sales figures and a third straight record-breaking year for the once-beleaguered giant of the U.S. auto industry. 

“GM continued to grow in 2015 as our focus on the customer and successful new vehicle launches more than offset the challenging conditions in South America and the curtailment of our presence in certain markets such as Russia,” GM President Dan Ammann said in a statement. 

Ford officials similarly boasted that their 2015 sales totals were a five percent increase over 2014 figures and the company’s best performance in nine years. 

“December capped off six straight months of year-over-year sales gains for F-Series, with strong increases coming from both retail sales and the strength of commercial fleet orders, as we closed out 2015,” said Mark LaNeve, a Ford vice president.

“Ford-brand SUVs delivered their best sales results in more than a decade, with our newest SUVs leaving dealer lots in a matter of days,” he continued. 

Fiat Chrysler officials found reasons for optimism in their 2015 sales figures too.  

“FCA US finished 2015 strong with sales up 13 percent and our best December sales since we started business more than 90 years ago,” said Reid Bigland, head of U.S. sales for Fiat Chrysler.

“For the second straight year, the company has topped 2 million in U.S. sales. FCA US sales have now grown annually for the past six years,” he added.