Toyota has quietly become the number one brand in the United States after overtaking Chevrolet in sales in May.

Through May, Toyota Motor Corp. led all brands with U.S. unit sales of 954,000 vehicles, a razor-thin 5,200 units ahead of General Motors Corp.’s Chevy brand and 40,000 better than the Ford Motor Co.’s Ford brand.

The Toyota brand’s lead is far wider when it comes to all-important retail sales, which exclude low-margin sales to car rental companies and other fleets. In April, Toyota’s namesake brand claimed 15.8 percent of the U.S. retail vehicle market, compared to 11.9 percent for Chevy and 11.1 percent for Ford, according to an analysis of national sales transaction data prepared for The Detroit News by R.L. Polk & Co.

Toyota has made some key gains in the North American market recently including the successful introduction of the youth orientated Scion brand, the growth of it’s full sized pickups that compete with the Silverado and F150 pickups, and the introduction of the Camry at NASCAR.

You can read more here.

technorati tags: toyota market share brand nascar
del.icio.us tags: toyota market share brand nascar
icerocket tags: toyota market share brand nascar
keotag tags: toyota market share brand nascar