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With the results of the two largest car companies by sales in the world, the top two of the sales list of multinational car companies in the first half of the year were also announced. Toyota sold 4.164 million vehicles in the first half of this year, surpassing Volkswagen's sales figure of 3.89 million, bringing it back to the top of the world after six years, according to the data.

This year, due to the market decline and the impact of novel coronavirus, the global automobile market has been hit hard, and Toyota and Volkswagen brands are no exception. Sales of both car companies have declined, of which the Toyota brand has reached the second lowest in nearly 20 years. Volkswagen also said that the first half of the year was "one of the most challenging periods in our company's history."

According to Toyota's latest figures for the first half of 2020, global sales have fallen to 4.164 million vehicles, down 21.6% from a year earlier. This is not only the first decline of the Toyota brand in three years, but also the second lowest in its history after the Lehman crisis (2009) since 2001.

According to specific data, with the exception of Daihatsu Industries and Hino Motor, Toyota single-brand sales in the first half of the year were 3.7713 million vehicles, down 21.2% from the same period last year. Such sales are still due to the help of the rapid recovery of the Chinese market under the epidemic. Toyota said its sales in Japan and the US still fell 23 per cent and 27 per cent respectively in June. At the same time, the company's sales in Greater China, including Hong Kong and Macau, increased by 23%. In June, the company's sales exceeded the same period last year for three consecutive months, making the first half of the year down only 2.2%, basically the same as the previous year.

Volkswagen's sales have also fallen by nearly 30% due to unfavorable factors this year. According to the results disclosed by Volkswagen in the first half of this year, Volkswagen's cumulative global sales in the first half of this year were 3.8931 million vehicles, down 27.4% from the same period last year, nearly 300000 vehicles behind the Toyota brand.

Volkswagen officials say the Volkswagen Group and other brand businesses have been hit by the epidemic, with a decline in sales and revenue.

Although Toyota's latest financial results have not yet been released, Volkswagen is obviously having a harder time this year than Toyota, not only falling sales and revenue, but also spending half of its pre-tax net profit in the first half of the year as a result of the diesel emissions scandal. it undoubtedly makes Volkswagen worse.

In the first six months of this year, Volkswagen Group's cumulative sales revenue was 96.1 billion euros (790.9 billion yuan), down 23.2 percent from a year earlier, while pre-tax profit fell to 1.4 billion euros (11.5 billion yuan), according to the financial report. At the same time, spending on special projects caused by diesel emissions problems in the first half of the year was 700 million euros (5.75 billion yuan), accounting for half of the group's pre-tax profits.

In response, Volkswagen said that the first half of 2020 was the most difficult period in the more than 80 years since the group was founded. Due to epidemic prevention restrictions, production was suspended in many places, which also led to extremely poor sales in Europe and North America in March and April. Including the resumption of a number of factories in Germany can only resume work for a short time.

It is worth noting that in such a difficult situation in the first half of this year, Volkswagen has expected a year-on-year decline in both sales and revenue this year, but it still believes that it will be profitable for the full year's operating profit, which is only lower than the previous forecast of 9%.

Of course, this is also the sales performance in China has given the public a great deal of confidence. Feng Sihan, CEO of Volkswagen Group (China), has previously said that Volkswagen's sales in China will decline by less than 10% in 2020, outperform the overall car market for the whole year (expected to shrink 10% by 12%) and maintain its market share in China at around 20%.

Volkswagen Group (China) and its joint ventures delivered a total of 1.59 million vehicles in the Chinese market in the first half of this year, down 17 per cent from a year earlier and below the 22 per cent decline in the overall domestic market, according to official figures.

Although this year's epidemic has led to a historic decline in global car sales, sales in some countries are gradually recovering with the improvement of the epidemic, and the Chinese market will continue to be the main strategic market for multinational car companies.

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