The figure puts it ahead of Volkswagen in second place with 9.93m vehicles and GM in the third slot with 9.8m cars.

However, Toyota’s sales were down 0.8% on the 10.23m reported for 2014.

Although Japanese media have reported that the brand is considering a tie-up with Suzuki, Reuters said Toyota had denied reports that it was in partnership talks but said it was considering buying out the rest of Daihatsu.

Commenting on the news, Ana Nicholls, automotive analyst at The Economist Intelligence Unit, said: “It is noticeable that Toyota has kept its crown as the world's biggest carmaker despite a drop in global sales. The weakness of the Japanese market has hit the carmaker, but its exports are no longer benefiting from the depreciation of the yen, which remained broadly stable against the dollar in 2015. And like Volkswagen, it has been affected by slumps or slowdowns in major emerging markets, without benefiting as much as Volkswagen from Europe's recovery.

“Interestingly, Daihatsu performed particularly badly, but clearly Toyota sees potential in the company. If procurement costs can be trimmed, then its cheap run-arounds should do well in still-promising emerging markets such as India or the ASEAN region (Daihatsu has a stake in Malaysia's Perodua). A Suzuki tie-up would definitely help in India.”