The Japanese automaker overtook the Volkswagen Group which saw its sales decline by 15 percent to 9.31 million. The German auto giant’s figure included sales of VW, Audi, Porsche, Skoda, and Seat as well as its Scania and MAN truck units.

This marks the first time in five years that Toyota has taken the mantle of the best-selling automaker globally. 

The shake-up was largely determined by each carmaker’s level of exposure to the regions most disrupted by the virus.

Volkswagen, which has a strong footprint in Europe saw its sales there drop 24 percent to less than 10 million. Comparatively, Toyota’s strong showing in the last quarter of 2020—up 6.8 percent year-on-year exceeded even the company’s own expectations helping them mitigate the losses during the first part of the year.

The best-selling model for Toyota is the RAV4 which sold 994,000 units—up 2.9 percent year-on-year. In addition, the global ratio of their electrified vehicles jumped to 23 percent from 20 percent.

For Toyota Motor Philippines, the soft economy meant sales dropped 38.3 percent in 2020 to 100,019 units overall (the carmaker sold 13,716 units in December, a 13.6 percent decline year-on-year). Having said that, the carmaker notes that sales of Lexus were “strong,” and the data does point towards a recovery.

In fact, the Philippines is the sixteenth largest market for Toyota globally outranking countries such as Germany (86,872), Italy (83,474), Vietnam (72,126), and Malaysia (59,320). However, this down from 2019 where the Philippines was in the Top 10.

In terms of production, Toyota Motor Philippines’s January to December 2020 sales are down 34.8 percent to 35,213 units produced. However, assembly at the Santa Rosa, Laguna plant actually rose in December—up 8.3 percent to 3,669 units.