The group of the giant Japanese car manufacturing company Toyota Motor Corp came at the end of last year at the top of the global car market in terms of sales, surpassing the German Volkswagen, the second-largest car company in terms of sales.

Toyota Group, which includes Daihatsu Motor and Hino Motors Limited, increased its sales last year by 7.2% annually to 11.2 million cars. At the same time, Toyota Group's production last year increased by 8.6% to 11.5 million cars. In contrast, Volkswagen Group's sales last year rose by 12% annually to 9.24 million cars. Volkswagen Group includes several subsidiaries such as Skoda, SEAT, Porsche, and Audi.

Bloomberg agency quoted Tasso Yoshida, chief automotive market analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence for economic analytics, as saying, "Toyota overcame the supply chain crisis last summer to sell all of its production."

Despite Toyota lagging behind in the global race to electric vehicles transformation, the recovery of supply chains and stable demand in North America and Europe last year helped Toyota Group increase its production and achieve profits abroad. At the same time, demand for hybrid cars remained strong in Japan and abroad.

While sales figures last year strengthened Toyota Group's dominance in the global car market in general, the Chinese electric car company BYD became the largest company in this market worldwide, surpassing its American competitor Tesla, selling about 3.02 million electric and hybrid cars last year.

In contrast, Toyota sold 104,018 electric cars, while the Japanese company initially targeted selling 202,000 electric cars during the fiscal year ending March 31 next, but reduced the number in last November to 123,000 electric cars during the fiscal year due to demand and supply chain problems.

American company Tesla sold 1.81 million electric cars last year.

For his part, Koji Sato, CEO of Toyota, pledged the company's ability to sell 1.5 million electric cars annually by 2026 and 3.5 million cars by 2030.