General Motors to reclaim top position from Toyota: Tsunami Effect

Toyota Motor Corporation

The Earthquake and the Tsunami that followed is causing more woes for the Japanese automakers every passing week. This time around, Toyota’s production is et to fall to 6 million units in 2011, thus ensuring that rivals like General Motors and Volkswagen take the dominant market sales leader position that Toyota has steadily held since 2008.

Seen as an auto industry bellwether, especially for the Japanese market, this is the latest crisis to hit Toyota in 2011 after it got embroiled in a spate of recalls early this year that caused loss in operating profits as well as credibility in the crucial US market. To this day, Toyota continues to face hundreds of class action lawsuits in America for faulty cars.

Meanwhile, 150 types of auto parts that Toyota needs to assemble it’s cars remains difficult to source at the moment as Japanese part makers have been particularly hit hard by the Earthquake and Tsunami. Therefore, production is expected to drop six million units in 2011 while Toyota already has taken a hit of 260,000 cars.

This will allow General Motors, which sold 8.39 million cars, a close second to Toyota’s 8.42 Million cars last year, to nose ahead of Toyota and possibly even Volkswagen could displace Toyota from the second place to third. In India too, Toyota has cut production by 70% till the end of next month and future launches could be delayed as the automaker struggles to find an adequate supply of parts.

Via AssociatedPress

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