GM back on top as world’s best-selling automaker

General Motors Co. regained its title as the world’s top-selling automaker in 2011, less than three years after its 2009 taxpayer-funded bankruptcy.

According to Detroit-based GM, it sold 9.03 million cars and trucks last year, up 7.6 per cent from 2010.

GM beat out Toyota, which took the crown away from GM in 2008. Toyota sold 7.9 million vehicles last year, but slipped in the rankings this year after the March 2011 earthquake in Japan, which cut factory production and hurt sales.

Germany’s Volkswagen took second place with a record 8.156 million sales in 2011, up 14 per cent over 2010. South Korean sister carmakers Hyundai Motor Co and its 34 per cent owned Kia Motors Corp racked up total sales of 6.53 million last year.

Before 2008, GM had held the title for more than seven decades.

The sales figures released by GM for 2011 include vehicles sold through its joint ventures in China. However some analysts extract those sales from GM’s results, and the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, a global trade group based in France, has not yet released its annual ranking of automakers by production.