Toyota came through the corona crisis better and ousted its German rival Volkswagen from the top of the world market.
Toyota has benefited greatly from the recovery in auto demand in China and is raising its forecast for the fiscal year again. The operating profit climbed in the period from October to December by more than half to 987.9 billion yen (about 7.8 billion euros), as the world's largest automaker announced on Wednesday. That was significantly more than analysts had estimated.
Above expectations
For the fiscal year ending in March Toyota now expects an operating profit of two trillion yen, far more than the previously promised 1.3 trillion yen. The Toyota Group, which also includes the small car specialist Daihatsu and the commercial vehicle manufacturer Hino Motors, expects global sales of 9.7 million vehicles for the current fiscal year. In November, the group had assumed 9.4 million vehicles.
Thanks to the Asian market, Toyota came through the corona crisis better and for the first time in five years had ousted German rival Volkswagen from the top of the world market.
Sales decreased
Sales of the world's largest Japanese car maker fell by eleven percent to around 9.5 million vehicles last year, but fell less sharply than at Volkswagen, with 9.3 million vehicles.
The Japanese group had only raised its forecast for the operating result in November.
