TOKYO: The Toyota Motor Corp. group beat Germany’s Volkswagen AG group to top global unit sales rankings for the first time in six years on a first-half basis, January-June data showed Thursday.

In the first six months of 2020, the Toyota group, including Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors Ltd., saw its global sales drop 21.6 pct from a year earlier to 4.16 million units due to the coronavirus pandemic. But the Volkswagen group’s sales remained at 3.89 million units, as it suffered a larger drop along with other automakers.

Although the Toyota group’s global sales posted the first drop in four years in the first half, “the sales have been recovering faster than expected since April,” a Toyota spokesperson said.

In China, for instance, Toyota’s sales fall of 2.2 pct was far smaller than Volkswagen’s drop of over 20 pct, as the new Wildlander SUV sold well, according to data for Toyota alone.

Global sales at the alliance of Nissan Motor Co., Renault SA of France and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. came to 3.45 million units, slipping to third place in the rankings.

Nissan’s own sales fell 31.2 pct to 1.81 million units, down for the third straight year, reflecting a plunge of over 40 pct in Europe.

Meanwhile, domestic production at eight major Japanese automakers in the 2020 first half tumbled 27.2 pct to 3,442,210 units, with all of them suffering declines.

In June alone, their domestic output plunged 36.4 pct to 490,877 units.

JIJI Press