General Motors Back On Top With 9 Million Unit Sales In 2011

General Motors has achieved a sales figure of 9.03 million units in 2011, surpassing both the 8.16 million sold by Volkswagen and the 7.9 million estimated by Toyota. Like other Japanese automakers, Toyota was impacted by inventory shortages caused by the twin disasters in Japan. That puts GM back on top of global sales, which is a remarkable achievement given the automaker’s financial health in 2009.

Gaining four-tenths of a point of market share to 11.9 percent of the global vehicle industry, sales went up in all four reporting regions – North America, South America, Europe and International Operations – as GM sold a total of 9,025,942 vehicles compared with 8,385,484 in 2010.

“Chevrolet’s impressive growth in both established and developing markets is the result of a strong new product line up that meets the diverse needs of consumers around the world,” said GM Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson. “In addition to Chevrolet’s record-setting sales, the entire line up of GM vehicles is meeting customer needs for fuel-efficient cars and work vehicles as well as unmatched luxury.”

The Chevrolet Cruze compact sedan led the brand with global sales of more than 670,000 in 2011, making it the best-selling Chevrolet nameplate around the world with more than 1.13 million sold since its launch in 2009, and in the United States, Chevrolet was the best selling passenger car brand in 2011, this success is owed to the Cruze as Chevrot says.