Toyota Motor beats GM in auto sales in 2006

12 June 2007

Toyota Motor Corp has moved up ahead of General Motors Corp. to become the world's biggest automaker by sales in 2006 according to leading industry paper Automotive News.

The publication, which comes out with a widely quoted annual ranking of the world's automakers, said Toyota sold 8,808,000 units in 2006 outstripping GM by about 128,000 units. GM sold 8,679,860, the paper said.

In its ranking, the data included sales of GM's subsidiary in the total for the parent company with the majority stake.

GM, which has claimed the top spot for 76 years, had counted those vehicles, totaling 420,140 units in 2006, in its own tally, the paper said.

Toyota's own sales figures include sales at units Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors.

By GM's own figures, global sales in the first quarter of 2007 fell 90,000 vehicles short of its Japanese rival's. Toyota is almost certain to take the lead for all of 2007 after projecting sales of 9.34 million units against GM's forecast of 9.2 million.