Motor-manufacturer Toyota SA, last year sold a record 151 056 units, lifting its position from twelfth to seventh Toyota distributor selling the most vehicles outside Japan.

The sales units placed Toyota SA behind the US, China, Thailand, Australia, Canada and Saudi Arabia.

Importantly, the market for Toyota in South Africa was bigger than for any country in Europe, as Germany, the UK and Italy placed below Toyota SA in the top ten sellers’ list, the company reported on Thursday.

Toyota also exported a record 49 142 built-up vehicles in 2006, which was almost two and a half times the 20 660 vehicles exported in 2005.

The strong performance in 2006 made Toyota the leading vehicle exporter from South Africa, with a 27,3% share of this market.

This strong local and export demand for Toyotas resulted in therecord production of 148 507 units, made up of 50 410 cars, 96 072 light and medium commercial vehiclesand 2 025 Hino trucks.

This production figure was achieved despite a constraint in terms of body painting while a state-of-the-art new paint plant was completed. The R1,2-billion facility only came onstream in October.

The total number of Toyota cars and commercial vehicles manufactured in South Africa has now risen to 2 813 857 units, made up of 1 478 867 cars and 1 334 990 commercial vehicles.

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