William Maley
Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com
January 20, 2012
Earlier this week, General Motors announced that it sold 9.03 million vehicles in 2011, making it the world’s largest automaker by volume. However, Volkswagen is challenging the claim, stating GM included sales of automakers it doesn’t even fully own.
Volkswagen's beef with GM's claim is that it includes sales of Chinese automakers SAIC Motor Corp. and Wuling Motors Co. GM has stakes in both companies, but not a majority stake in either. Some analysts exculde Wuling and SAIC in their sales report.
Wulling accounted for 1.29 million vehicles, while SAIC accounted for 1.2 million. Remove those two out and Volkswagen would be the top automaker in volume with 8.16 million vehicles. That figure is expected to grow even higher when MAN and Scania trucks announce their sales within a few weeks.
What does GM think of VW's accusation?
“Our goal is to be the best, not necessarily the biggest. If we had announced plans on world domination, we probably would have been quibbling with the sales of our competitors and that’s as far removed from focusing on the customers as you can get,” said GM Spokesman, Jim Cain.
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