Toyota Recall
Toyota Motor Corp is recalling about 650,000 vehicles in Japan because of potentially defective airbags, expanding a costly recall it announced in 2013 because the supplier, Takata Corp, had not fully identified the problematic parts, the carmaker said on June 11, 2014. reuters

Toyota rules the car sales market in the world in the first six months of 2014. The companies which it beat to be the No. 1 in the business are Volkswagen and General Motors in the United States.

Japanese vehicle company Toyota Motor Corp. made an announcement on Wednesday, July 30 that, according to the January-June global sales, it sold 5,097 million cars all over the planet. The rise is around 4 per cent, compared to the sales report of 2013. Toyota's business grew not only in Japan but in the other parts of the world including Asia, Europe and the U.S. The company stated that there has been a rush among Japanese buyers to purchase a car before an inflated consumption tax was imposed from April 1.

Toyota also managed to sell 12 per cent more number of cars in China than what it sold in 2013. It sold 8 per cent more in Europe and 5 per cent more in North America. The company, on the other hand, emphasised that it was not its intention to fight with its competitors for securing the "No. 1" spot in car sales. It would rather work on satisfying its customers, one vehicle at a time. In spite of the "humble" statement, experts may not be convinced that the company is not bothered about the tough competitive market.

German company Volkswagen managed to sell 4.97 million cars in the first six months of 2014. General Motors, a U.S. based company, sold 4.92 million cars. The Detroit company struggled to fight an earlier controversy related to faulty ignition switches. The German company has been able to outpace the growth of its U.S. counterpart.

Toyota Motor Thailand President Kyoichi Tanada earlier said that the company would continue to invest in the country in spite of the political instability. He said that customers had started having a better outlook since the coup on May 22, 2014. Toyota presently has a 35.9 per cent share of the entire domestic market in Thailand.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au