Two years after filing for bankruptcy, General Motors has reclaimed the title as the world’s largest automaker.
For the first six months of the year, the company sold 4.53 million vehicles which put it ahead of Volkswagen AG (4.13 million) and Toyota (3.71 million). Production at Toyota City in Japan was 23 per cent down on the first half of 2010 following the earthquake and tsunami disaster in March that disrupted vehicle production and supply around the world.
Industry analysts expect Toyota to still trail GM and Volkswagen at the end of 2011. Toyota is hopeful of returning to pre-disaster sales levels over the next few months, and plans to increase production by 350 000 units between October 2011 and March 2012 in an attempt to offset some of the year’s losses. Volkswagen has set its sights on selling 7.56 million vehicles in 2011 (representing a five per cent increase over last year), on its way to a planned 10 million vehicles by 2018.
In related news, GM posted a second quarter net income of $2.5 billion on revenues of $39.4 billion. According to CEO Dan Akerson, “GM’s investments in fuel economy, design and quality are paying off around the world as our global market share growth and financial results bear out.”
