Toyota Motor Corp (TYO:7203). remained the world leader in auto sales in 2022, widening its lead over its nearest competitor, Volkswagen (ETR:VOWG) AG. Toyota’s sales fell 0.1% last year to 10.48 million vehicles, the Japanese company said in a press release issued Monday. Toyota Motor Corp stock prices are rising on the back of positive reports. 

Volkswagen said earlier this month that its 2022 sales fell 7 percent to 8.3 million vehicles, an 11-year low.

Toyota has outpaced Volkswagen in sales for three years in a row, Bloomberg notes. At the same time, both companies, like other global automakers, may face a decline in demand as global economic growth slows.

Toyota hasn’t complained about the drop in demand so far, saying it still can’t cut delivery times for customers who have to wait months or even years for some models. This demonstrates that the Toyota Motor Corporation business model is working. 

The Japanese company aims to sell 10.6 million vehicles in the next fiscal year, which begins in April. At the same time, it warns that deliveries could be 10% lower than expected if shortages of individual components, particularly chips, persist.

S&P Global Mobility experts believe Toyota will continue to widen its sales gap with Volkswagen in 2023, predicting the Japanese automaker’s deliveries of 10.4 million vehicles versus 7.99 million units for Volkswagen.

Volkswagen sales will begin to recover in 2024, S&P Global Mobility predicts. At the same time, sales of passenger cars of Toyota by the end of this decade, according to experts, will reach 11 million per year.

Earlier, we reported that spot prices for LNG in Asia are significantly higher than in the U.S. and Europe.