IN 2015, Toyota Motor Corporation has emerged as the leading automaker in terms of global sales for the fourth consecutive year. The Japanese automaker reported global sales of 10.15 million units 2015, surpassing Volkswagen and General Motors to become the leading automaker for the fourth year in a row.
Toyota’s total worldwide production declined 2% year over year to 10,083,783 units in 2015. This was due to a 4.2% cut in production in Japan to 4,035,434 units, and a 0.4% reduction in production outside Japan to 6,048,349 units.
The second position was held by Volkswagen, with global sales of 9.93 million vehicles in 2015. However, as expected, the German automaker’s sales fell 2% from 2014 due to the negative impact of the emission scandal. With sales of 9.8 million vehicles, General Motors came in third.
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Meanwhile the total number of vehicles recalled in 2015 over various faults hit a new all-time high. In the US alone, 51.26 million units were recalled.Massive recalls related to the defective Takata airbags and stricter implementation by the government contributed to the large number of recalls. Heavy fines imposed on many automakers for delay in reporting safety issues also prompted many companies to proactively announce safety recalls.
The United States safety regulatory agency, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) raised the recall of vehicles affected by defective Takata airbag inflators by around 5 million, taking the number of affected airbags to 28 million units in 24 million vehicles. A new fatality in a Ford vehicle prompted 1 million of the new recalls, while additional testing on driver-side airbags resulted in the remaining 4 million additional recalls. The expanded recall adds Volkswagen, Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Saab to the list of affected automakers.