GM has sold 80,000 more cars than Toyota this year, fighting back after losing its 90-year streak as the USA's best-selling automaker

Stephen Jones
Updated ·2 min read
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GM's Factory Zero in Detroit.
GM's Factory Zero in Detroit.Nic Antaya / Stringer / Getty

  • GM has sold almost 80,000 more cars than Toyota in 2022, bouncing back after falling behind last year.

  • Toyota was the best-selling car maker in the US in 2021, ending GM's 90-year run at the top.

  • GM's sales had suffered amid a semiconductor shortage, but as shortages abated it bounced back.

The General Motors Company has sold nearly 80,000 more cars than its Japanese rival Toyota in 2022, as it fights back to regain its place as the best-selling automaker in the US.

Monday saw many of the USA's biggest automakers announce their third quarter sales results for the region.

GM sold 555,580 cars in the USA during the three months to September, a 24% increase from the same period last year, it announced. Toyota sold 526,017 during the same period, per its own figures, a fall of 7.1% year-on-year. It is the second consecutive quarter that GM has outsold its rival.

The latest figures take GM's yearly sales to more than 1,650,000, almost 80,000 more than Toyota's 1,572,000 for the year to date, and see it maintain its place at the top of the US's auto sales.

In a break from a 90-year-long trend, Toyota dethroned GM at the top last year after a series of supply chain shortages, particularly of semiconductors, hampered GM's output for the year. It was the first time since 1931 that GM was not the biggest seller of cars in the US, an event that Toyota president Akio Toyoda said left him doing a 'little happy dance' in his office.

GM said that improved access to semiconductors had helped it boost production.

"Supply chain disruptions are not fully behind us, but we expect to continue outperforming 2021 production levels, especially in the second half of the year," Steve Carlisle, executive vice president, and president, of GM North America said this week.

GM was in a minority among large automakers in seeing an uptick in quarterly sales in a market that is bracing for a slow down as consumers tighten their belts amid rising interest rates and living costs.

Neither GM nor Toyota immediately responded when approached for comment by Insider Tuesday.

Stellantis NV — which owns brands including Ram, Dodge, and Chrysler — revealed it had sold nearly 386,000 cars during the third quarter of 2022, an overall 6% fall compared to 2021. Honda saw Q3 sales fall nearly 36%, the company said.

Korean giant Hyundai, which has been rapidly expanding its investment in the US, saw sales increase by 3% in the three months to September, its "best ever" Q3 performance, the company said. Ford is set to release figures later on Tuesday.

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