Toyota Aims to be Top of the Global Sales Chart

Toyota

, the Japan-based automobile manufacturer, is driving towards regaining the number one sales ranking in the global auto industry. While American car companies like Ford

have been struggling in the second quarter due to a

, Toyota sold 4.97 million vehicles worldwide in the first half of 2012 moving the company ahead of General Motors

. According to The

, GM's global sales totaled 4.67 million vehicles for the first of the year, while second-placed Volkswagen had global sales of 4.52 million vehicles.

in May that Toyota was looking to double profits. The company said that, while income for the fiscal year ending in March had dropped, it is expecting profit for the current fiscal year to more than double to $9.73 billion. The company said that number will be helped by new models of vehicles as well as an improvement in the global economy. It would certainly be a welcome improvement for Toyota, which has been drastically under-achieving of late, struggling to get even close to the record 1.2 trillion yen that it pulled in back in 2008. Not long after that the company suffered an historic loss in the midst of the global economic crisis. A recall crisis didn't help the company's cause at all. According to a statement from Toyota, net income fell 31 percent from the previous year to 283.6 billion, thanks in no small part to the disasters that have hit Japan as well as the strong Japanese currency. “In recent years, we have suffered periods of hardship. This year, I am determined to show tangible results of all our internal efforts in order to reward our stakeholders who supported us during these difficult times,” said CEO Akio Toyoda.

Wednesday that Toyota reached 200 million produced vehicles in June. The foreign car distributor reached 10 million units back in 1972 as growth continued to accelerate up in the years following. Based in Japan, Toyota's almost 77 years of operation paid off last month as the company reached a milestone. On Thursday, Toyota traded at about $74, up roughly 2 percent.