General Motors regains its global leadership

Four years after General Motors ceded the top spot in global automotive leadership to Toyota, it has reclaimed it with 6.788 million vehicles sold worldwide, while Volkswagen becomes the second-largest company in the world.

After Toyota overtook General Motors in 2007, the American company had to go through a bankruptcy protection process that was halted by the rescue hand of the Obama administration. Meanwhile, Toyota continued to rack up millions of units sold, and Volkswagen established itself as the third leading company.

With the rescue of General Motors, the decline of Toyota began. Cases of unintended acceleration began to undermine the brand’s confidence in its main Japanese market in the US. In addition, the Japan earthquake considerably affected the brand’s production capacity, along with that of other Japanese brands.

By 2011, GM had increasingly consolidated, now followed by Volkswagen, the undisputed leader of the European market. If we were to establish a ranking of global automotive groups, GM has placed first with 6.788 million vehicles sold, followed by Volkswagen. In third place is Toyota with 4.260 million units, and fourth would be Ford, with 4.216 million.

Source | Expansión