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Toyota is now the largest car maker in the world

Posted by Hootan Mahallati | January 21, 2009 | In gm news toyota

After 77 years of claiming the title of the world's largest automaker based on sales figures, GM has now fallen to number two behind the Japanese giant Toyota. The difference is small, namely a bit over 600,000 units. To give you an idea of the scale of these two companies, Toyota sold 8.97 million vehicles, compared to 8.36 million for GM.

GM may not mind so much because while the psychological boost of being the world's largest car company is not negligible, neither is the intensity of the spotlight, often negative, that comes with the territory. Now, Toyota is the big boy on the block, concurrent with a declining global industry and the symbolic leadership role it will now have in facing the challenges. The sales figures this year will be significantly lower and in fact, GM seems to finally understand that it has to downsize the company in order to survive. For more, check out the story on CNN.

[Source: Automotive News with free subscription]

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