There are many ways to measure global automobile production. The fact of the matter is that these manufacturers also make money not only from light vehicles, but also from selling heavy trucks which are exclusively sold to businesses. And with the rapidly changing global automotive industry, the competition between different car manufacturers around the globe is rather intense between big players and those which are fighting to grab a larger market share.
To compete globally, car manufacturers need to integrate advanced technology into their automobiles and expand their manufacturing facilities around the world. Among these new developments include navigation, battery charging, entertainment systems, to name a few.
Aside from that, they need to ensure superior safety and reliability of their cars. In addition, they must also offer better performance, comfort, energy efficiency, and decreased environmental impact. The industry is one wherein the lead position will face stiff challenge from other car companies within the next several years. Most of the companies are undergoing expansion of their models as well as manufacturing facilities worldwide.
24/7 Wall St. conducted a review of the world's largest automobile manufacturers based on the number of cars, light trucks, and heavy vehicles they produced. This offers a better measure of each manufacturer's position in the worldwide industry than just cars alone. To determine the top automakers, they have reviewed global auto production numbers from 2012 released by the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles or OICA. Here now are the top five car manufacturers based on Yahoo Finance.
5. Ford
In terms of cars produced, Ford ranks seventh with 3,123,340 in 2012. It captured about 14.7% of the US market as of August, a decrease from the previous year. Majority of its cars are manufactured in the United States, with overall domestic production totaling over 2 million last year.
4. Hyundai
South Korean car company, Hyundai, manufactured the third highest number of cars globally with 7,126,413 units produced in 2012. It reported an all-time US sales record of 66,000 units last August. However, even with the increase in sales, Hyundai's US market share dropped from almost 5% in August 2013 to roughly 4.4% last month.
3. Volkswagen
Volkswagen dropped from second last year to third last month in terms of car production with 9,254,742 units produced. The company saw a drop in its US market share from 2.8% in 2012 to 2.4% last year. The German automaker was the largest manufacturer of passenger cars in 2012.
General Motors manufactured the biggest number of light commercial vehicles in 2012 with over 2.6 million units. However, in the United States, it only managed to produce 1.9 million vehicles. Through the first eight months of 2014, General Motors saw an increase in sales by almost 10%. They are the automakers of Chevrolet, GMC, Lsuzu, Cadillac and Opel Buick. GM has led global vehicle sales for 77 consecutive years since 1931, the longest ever in automotive history.
1. Toyota
Japanese car manufacturer Toyota, founded by Kiichito Toyota in 1937, has emerged as the largest company in the world in 2012, due to its expansion efforts that saw an additional production of 2 million vehicles between 2011 and 2012. It produced 4.4 million vehicles in Japan and 1.2 million in the United States last year. Overall, the company manufactured 10,104,424 vehicles and 8,381,968 cars.
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