On May 30th Toyota Motor released global sales figures for the first half of 2020 for the group as a whole, including Daihatsu Industries and Hino Motors. Toyota's overall sales in the first half of this year reached 4.164 million vehicles, down 21.6 percent from a year earlier, the data said. Although down, it has surpassed rival Volkswagen group's sales figure of 3.89m and is now the world's largest for the first time in six years.

In addition to Daihatsu and Hino, Toyota Motor Alone produced 588,800 vehicles globally in June, down 24% from a year earlier and the sixth straight month of decline. That compares with global sales of 706,500 vehicles in June, down 16% from a year earlier. In the first six months of this year, the output of Toyota motor alone was 3.313,500 units, down 28.6% from a year earlier. Sales in the january-June period were 3.7713 million units, down 21.2 percent from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, first-half figures for the world's top three car groups, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, have not yet been released, but are expected to be lower than those for Toyota.