Toyota Motor was the world’s biggest vehicle maker by sales volume last year, ahead of General Motors, an industry newspaper said on Tuesday.
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According to Automotive News, Toyota sold 8,808,000 vehicles in 2006, to GM’s 8,679,860, ending the US company’s decades-long reign at the top. The rankings were compiled by the Automotive News Data Centre.
Automotive News said a little-known Chinese microvan played a role in Toyota’s victory because GM had included the box-shaped, seven-seat van and other Wuling vehicles in its global total sales.
But Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp owns 51% of the van’s joint venture manufacturer, SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co and, in its ranking, the data centre credits sales of a subsidiary to the parent company that owns a majority share, the paper noted, adding that Wuling’s sales of 420,140 units are credited to Shanghai Automotive, allowing Toyota to top GM by 128,140 vehicles.
Separately, Reuters reported that GM had claimed the top spot for 76 years and noted that Toyota’s own sales figures, which correspond with Automotive News’ tally, include sales at its Daihatsu Motor (small cars and contract assembly of Toyotas) and Hino Motors (commercial vehicles) units.
The news agency added that, by GM’s count, global sales in the first quarter of 2007 fell 90,000 vehicles short of Toyota’s, while the Japanese automaker is almost certain to take the lead for 2007 after projecting sales of 9.34m units against GM’s forecast of 9.2m.
