Chairman of Chinese auto giant BYD, Wang Chuanfu recently announced the company has set itself a target of five years to beat Toyota’s global dominance. In 2025, the Toyota Group sold 11.3 million cars worldwide making it the largest by volume globally and BYD was the sixth largest with 4.6 million cars sold during the same period.

Japanese auto giant Toyota has been the global auto sales leader for decades now. Since 2008 when they beat General Motors to become the global leader they have held the crown for most of the time. They lost the title briefly in 2011 due to the earthquake and consecutive tsunami in Tohoku that affected the company’s supply chain. The again between 2016 and 2019 it jumped to second spot giving Volkswagen Group the lead. 2020 onwards the company has again jumped to the top spot and held the position for the last six years.

Sources:

Strait Times: https://www.straitstimes.com/business/byd-chairman-says-firm-will-be-worlds-biggest-automaker-in-5-years-as-shares-slide

Autopunditz – autopunditz.com/post/toyota-still-rules-the-world-but-byd-s-rise-signals-a-global-auto-power-shift

Gasgoo – https://autonews.gasgoo.com/articles/news/toyota-passes-gm-for-first-time-in-global-sales-1428

Toyota Newsroom – https://pressroom.toyota.com/company-history/

BBC – https://www.bbc.com/news/business-14369137

Drive Australia – https://www.drive.com.au/news/toyota-breaks-global-sales-record-tops-2025-charts-for-sixth-year-running/