Toyota snagged the No.1 place in Q1 taking away the crown from General Motors with 2.49 million units sold across its five brands compared to 2.28 million for GM, while Volkswagen sold 2.19 million units. The Japanese automaker has made a spectacular comeback after the catastrophes of the last few years. “Although being No. 1 is not the main goal for us, it’s nice to see because hopefully it shows we’re on the right track,” said Jim Wiseman, Toyota’s North American vice president of external affairs. It has been predicted that by 2016 Volkswagen will vanquish all challengers but the year isn’t over yet and it in fact looks like there will be good news for all.

The sales volumes and profitability are up for all three automakers at least in America. Even with double its usual fleet sales in Q1, Toyota expects this financial year’s profits to double. According to what the company has said in a U.S. regulatory filing sales of Toyota, Lexus, Scion, Hino and Daihatsu models rose 18 per cent to 2.49 million in the quarter and that puts them ahead of both GM and VW. The automaker sold the most cars and trucks in the world in the first three months of the year as it made up for production lost to natural disasters in Asia.

via autoblog