Car sales in the US fell by around 7% for Toyota and Honda in 2011 while overall sales rose by 10% to 12.8 million.
By contrast with the poor performance of Toyota and Honda’s products, Nissan saw US sales remain strong. Yesterday Nissan also announced it had achieved record production from its UK, Sunderland site.
Japanese car manufacturers were under pressure to achieve sales in 2011 following the disastrous earthquake and tsunami in March of last year but also due to the strength of the yen and consequent inflated price of exported cars.
In an attempt to regain its position as Japan’s primary car manufacturer and to protect its position as the world’s largest global carmaker from rival, General Motors, Toyota has expressed ambitions to increase production by 20% and sales by 25% in 2012.
