In 2013, Toyota produced 10.1 million new cars, which was a production output never achieved by a carmaker before, the Japanese company announced Wednesday.

As its production grew 2.1 percent compared with 2012, the biggest rise in output had been achieved in its overseas factories which had contributed 5.8 million units, up 6.1 percent, Toyota said.

According to Toyota's figures, its domestic assembly lines in Japan churned out 4.3 million units, constituting a rise by 2.9 percent. Global sales, however, were lagging behind production in 2013 as they climbed just 2 percent to 9.98 million vehicles.

Nevertheless, the Japanese automaker remained the world's biggest manufacturer by both sales and production. After a devastating earthquake and a tsunami hobbled production in 2011, Toyota has managed to cling to the title for the second consecutive year, outselling US carmaker General Motors (GM) by about 300,00 vehicles last year, and Germany's Volkswagen Group by close to half a million units.

Last week, Toyota announced that it was aiming to sell 10.32 million vehicles this year, which would also make it the world's first carmaker to surpass the 10 million mark in sales.

uhe/kms (AP, dpa, AFP)