GM is World’s Number One Automaker, Toyota Drops to 3rd Place

Well, it was almost certain to happen after the March 11 earthquake and Tsunami hit Japan causing multiple problems to the country's automotive industry. Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, saw its production drop by 23% to 3.37 million units for the first half of the year - and includes sales of Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino vehicles.
As a result, the Japanese company lost the title of the world’s largest automaker that it held since 2008 to General Motors, which saw its sales rise by 8.9% to 4.536 million units for the first six months of 2011. For the time being, second place goes to the Volkswagen Group which sold 4.13 million units worldwide.
Toyota has announced that its factories already operate at 90% of their capacity since June and expects production to fully recover by November. Moreover, it will produce an additional 350,000 units from October until next March to make up for the lost ground.
However, analysts like Carnorama’s Takeshi Miyao, don't believe that Toyota can recuperate quickly: “Even if it recovers production it will take another few more months for sales to recover too, as it takes time to deliver the cars to the dealers. Therefore, Toyota may even trail VW in the full year as well”.

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Mazda2 First-Month Sales in Japan Exceed More than 100%

Mazda has announced that orders for the subtly revised Mazda Demio, or Mazda2 as is known overseas, in its first month of being available in Japan have far exceeded their initial target. Specifically, from June 30, when the Demio became available, until July 31, orders have reached 13,500 units, more than double Mazda’s initial estimate of 6,000.

And that’s only private customers, excluding rental or dealer test drive models. The Demio is also the first Mazda model to exceed 10,000 registrations in a single month since March 2004.
As expected, the new 13-SKYACTIVE model accounts for the vast majority of sales, since it has been the model of choice for 70% of the orders, surpassing initial projections of 60%.
Mazda's senior managing executive officer in charge of domestic business, Nobuhide Inamoto, said, "Mazda is extremely grateful for the strong support from so many customers who have pushed sales of the facelifted Demio well beyond our sales plan. Mazda's next-generation SKYACTIV TECHNOLOGY is also proving popular and we are confident that it will have a positive impact on our overall sales in Japan."
“Following the Demio, we will continue the rollout of our breakthrough SKYACTIV TECHNOLOGY with the facelifted Mazda Axela (Mazda3) this fall and the all-new Mazda CX-5 next year".
Demio’s customers are mostly single men and women, as well as people over 40 who are downsizing to a smaller, more efficient cars. They cite the reasons for their choice as the Demio’s fuel economy (as low as 3.33 lt/100 or 70.6 mpg in the Japanese driving cycle), its advanced technology and its quiet cabin.

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