Toyota Motor Corp of Japan surpassed Volkswagen of Germany in car sales last year. This is the first time in five years that the global pandemic has severely hit its German rival and has become the world’s largest car manufacturer by sales. 

Toyota Motor said on Thursday that the group’s overall global sales in 2020 will fall 11.3% to 9.528 million vehicles. In contrast, Volkswagen Group’s global sales fell 15.2% to 9.305 million vehicles. Automakers have suffered a coronavirus lockdown, preventing people from accessing car showrooms and forcing manufacturing plants to reduce or stop production. 

However, Toyota has weathered the epidemic better, partly because its home market Japan and the entire Asian region are less affected by the epidemic than Europe and the United States. A Toyota spokesperson said: “Our focus is not on our rankings, but on serving our customers.”