Toyota Revealed As World's Biggest Automaker Thanks To GM's Creative Math
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Toyota Revealed As World's Biggest Automaker Thanks To GM's Creative Math
The title of world's biggest automaker has been up in the air for the past month, with General Motors saying it sold 9,369,524 vehicles globally in 2007 and Toyota claiming a not-so-precise 9.366 million units sold worldwide. But apparently, GM did some creative math to come up with its final figure.
Automotive News has discovered that GM included the sales of 516,435 Wuling brand vehicles in its final tally. While GM does own 34% of the Chinese automaker, it's industry practice to only include the sales of companies that are majority-owned subsidiaries in an automaker's global total — the same stipulation that prevents Ford from claiming Mazda's sales (Ford only owns a 33.4% stake in the Japanese automaker).
Subtracting Wuling's sales from GM's 2007 total leaves the Detroit automaker with only 8,885,599 sales, well short of Toyota's estimated 9.366 million vehicle sales in 2007. Toyota won't announce its official global sales for 2007 until sometime next month, but it looks as though GM will lose its title of world's biggest automaker for the first time in 76 years.
Automotive News has discovered that GM included the sales of 516,435 Wuling brand vehicles in its final tally. While GM does own 34% of the Chinese automaker, it's industry practice to only include the sales of companies that are majority-owned subsidiaries in an automaker's global total — the same stipulation that prevents Ford from claiming Mazda's sales (Ford only owns a 33.4% stake in the Japanese automaker).
Subtracting Wuling's sales from GM's 2007 total leaves the Detroit automaker with only 8,885,599 sales, well short of Toyota's estimated 9.366 million vehicle sales in 2007. Toyota won't announce its official global sales for 2007 until sometime next month, but it looks as though GM will lose its title of world's biggest automaker for the first time in 76 years.
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