Toyota sold 8.4m vehicles in 2010 to hold top spot

Toyota sold 8.42 million vehicles globally in 2010, remaining the world's top automaker for the third year straight. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND LIM

TOKYO - TOYOTA sold 8.42 million vehicles globally in 2010, remaining the world's top automaker for the third year straight despite recall woes in the key North American market.

General Motors also released a new tally Monday for its global 2010 sales, at 8.39 million vehicles, slightly fewer than Toyota's number.

Toyota's global sales, including truckmaker Hino Motors Ltd. and Daihatsu Motor Co., which makes small cars, rose 8 per cent from 2009, driven by solid sales growth in China and other Asian nations, the Japanese manufacturer said.

Toyota Motor Corp. dethroned General Motors as the world's No. 1 automaker in worldwide vehicle sales in 2008 - a position GM held for nearly eight decades. Since then, General Motors, now called General Motors Co., underwent restructuring.

George Hansen, a GM spokesman in Tokyo, played down the importance of Toyota's bigger sales numbers.

'We don't focus on who is No. 1,' he said of the so-called 'new GM.' Toyota also said it was not concerned with beating GM. Our objective is to become No. 1 with the customers,' said Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco. -- AP