Toyota held on to its position as the world’s best-selling carmaker in 2013.<br /><br />The weak Japanese yen helped boost overseas sales, so it topped rivals General Motors and Volkswagen for the second year running.<br /><br />It had slipped to third place behind those two in 2011, following natural disasters in Japan and Thailand.<br /><br />Toyota’s 2013 sales rose two percent last year to 9.98 million cars and vans. <br /><br />GM sold 9.71 million vehicles, which was a four percent year-on-year gain, while Volkswagen was up almost five percent at 9.5 million. <br /><br />Toyota’s sales increased seven percent in the US and nine percent in China, but fell in its home market Japan and slipped by 0.2 percent in Europe.<br /><br />The company – which first took the number one spot from GM in 2008 – has set an ambitious target for this year. It is hoping to be the first carmaker to sell more than 10 million vehicles in one year.
