GM retakes World's Largest Automaker title from Toyota thanks to quake

13 years, 4 months ago - 8 August 2011

Bloomberg is reporting that General Motors has taken back the crown as the world's largest automaker. The Detroit-based company outsold Toyota through the first six months of 2011, thanks largely to the manufacturer's production shortages brought on by this year's earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan.

GM sold a total of 4.536 million units worldwide through June 30, Volkswagen moved 4.13 million vehicles, while Toyota numbers fell to 3.71 million units. Bloomberg reports that production at the company's Toyota City facility plummeted by 23 percent after a full production stop following the March earthquake.

Even so, Toyota says that it plans to institute an aggressive production recovery period during September, one month ahead of schedule, to help satiate demand. Those efforts still might not be enough to put the Japanese automaker ahead of Volkswagen through the remainder of 2011, however. Analysts say that's due to the simple logistics of delivering vehicles from their production facilities to the dealerships that need them most.