The FT called GM the global sales leader in a story they posted earlier today at around 2pm (I'm assuming the dateline is London). At 12pm EST Automotive News called it for Toyota (disclosure: Euro Car Guy freelances for Automotive News Europe, sister publication to AN).
Oddly enough, the FT also posted a simultaneous story by the same two reporters which said the two automakers were 'neck and neck'.
GM reported global sales for 2007 of 9,369,524 cars. While Toyota reported 9.37 million. So, okay, let's just call it a tie lest we have to ask Toyota for the exact number of cars, which I'm not even sure is possible.
But Automotive News called the race for Toyota since it discounted the Wuling brand of China sales that GM included in its total.
From Automotive News today:
It was widely reported this week that the two automakers finished in a dead heat for the No. 1 spot. Here is why: GM includes in its total 516,435 vehicles of the Wuling brand in China.
But GM owns only 34 percent of the Chinese company that produces Wuling vehicles, SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co.
Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., a major automaker in China, owns 50.1 percent of SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co.
Automotive News follows industry practice by including sales of only majority-owned subsidiaries in an automaker's global total. For instance, sales of Mazda Motor Corp. are not included in Ford Motor Co.'s total because Ford owns 33.4 percent of Mazda.
So Automotive News subtracts Wuling-brand sales from GM's reported total, arriving at 8,885,599.
I guess that settles it.
