Toyota builds 300 millionth car

On August 25, 1935, the car production counter for the Toyota Motor Corporation (then called Toyoda Automatic Loom Works) started running and in September of this year it surpassed 300 million. It started with the Toyota G1, a truck for which the company drew inspiration from American manufacturers. Less than a year later, the first passenger car, the AA, followed. Once again a creation with American influences, because the AA was very similar to the DeSoto Airflow. After military production before and during World War II, it took a while before Toyota started building cars on a large scale. Things moved quickly in the 50s and 60s. Yet it would not be until 1985 that Toyota built its 50 millionth car.

After that it all went even faster, because in 1997 there were already 100 million on the counter and then TMC reached 200 million in 2012. Now another 100 million cars have been built in about eleven years, because with the production figures of September 2023, Toyota now has more than 300 million cars built. It is not known exactly which car was the 300 millionth. There’s a good chance it was a Corolla, because that is still Toyota’s most successful model. Of all the cars (including those from Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino) that the Toyota Motor Corporation built, more than 53 million were Corollas.

Also here in the Netherlands, where Toyota delivered its 1.5 millionth car earlier this year, the Corolla is proudly at the top. If we look at Toyota’s Dutch sales totals (since 1983, because that’s where our data starts), the following top 10 emerges:

If we also include Daihatsu and Lexus, we only see two Daihatsu’s in the top 10. The Daihatsu Cuore (66,036 units) and the Daihatsu Charade (49,273 units) would then be in seventh and ninth place respectively.