Toyota Topples General Motors for Number One Spot in Global Sales

For years industry analysts have been predicting that GeneralMotors' leadership as the world's number one selling automaker is coming to an end. Predictions were made and surely some bets were cast in as to when this would occur, but the general timeframe for this event was predicted as sometime in 2007 or 2008. Fortunately for Toyota (and unfortunately for GM), the time has now come. Over the past three months of the first year, General Motors has been out-sold by Toyota Motor Corporation in terms of number of vehicles sold, effectively knocking GM off its post. It's worth noting that this title isn't just for North America, but around the world, and includes GM's international brands such as Opel, Holden, Saab and Hummer, not just the usual domestics.

If numbers are what you're after look no further: between Januaryand March, the bean counters tabulated that General Motors sold 2.26 million units. For General Motors, that was a record-breaking figure that represented growth of 67,000 units or three-percent over the previous quarter.

This wasn't enough to topple Toyota, however, which estimates that it sold 2.348 million vehicles, creating a difference in its favor of 88,000 units. A decent chunk of this gain can be observed in the American marketplace. Over the past year, Toyota's sales increased by 12.9-percent in the US, truly impressive growth, which helped catapult Toyota over DaimlerChrysler as the number three seller. In terms of North American market share, Toyota still trails Ford and GM. But back to global sales, the overall totals for last year saw General Motorstake the top spot by the skin of its teeth, selling 9.18 million cars and trucks versus Toyota's 9.018, a difference of 162,000 units.

Though the sales numbers released are only for the first quarter of the year, it's possible that General Motors could make a big turnaround in sales. General Motors' growth in Asia, particularly China, saw the brand sell 876,474 units, a growth of 32-percent over last year. GM will also be building a plant in India to assemble vehicles there.

On the Toyota front, the Japanese manufacturers' “global master plan” was recently revealed to the media. It shows a targeted sales increase of 15-percent of the world's total vehicle market by 2010.

Toyota's consistent growth in global sales, quarter after quarter, has many analysts thinking that GM won't be able to claw its way back into first place, but there's still three more quarters to go before the year ends and the dust settles.