GM ahead of Toyota in global sales

General Motors Corp. reported worldwide sales of 9.37 million vehicles last year, coming in just ahead of Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp in a closely watched race for the top spot in global sales.

GM, which was expected to lose its title of the world's largest automaker for the first time in 76 years, sold 9,369,524 vehicles last year. Toyota sold about 9,366,000 units, a source told Reuters.

The Japanese automaker earlier this month publicly announced global sales of 9.37 million for 2007, saying it would disclose more precise figures later this month

GM said its total global sales rose three per cent from a year earlier, driven by strong growth in regions outside North America.

Still, the two automakers are neck-and-neck, with only about 3,500 vehicles separating them at a time when Toyota has been growing in the US - the world's single largest market for vehicle sales - while GM's domestic market share has been slipping.

Since 1998, GM's global sales have grown at an average annual rate of about 1.5 per cent, while Toyota's growth rate has been five times that.

The two automakers have been perceived to be in a heated race this year after Toyota overtook GM in the first quarter and then fell behind by just a few thousand units later in the year.

"We are very competitive here at GM and obviously we'd like to win," GM's chief sales analyst, Mike DiGiovanni, said.

"But I would say that what we are really focused on running our business for the long term profitably and growing. I think we are laying the foundation to grow where the growth is and laying the foundation to turn around in the US," he said.

After losing more than $12 billion in 2005 and 2006, GM is in the middle of a restructuring of its North American operations that includes slashing more than 34,000 jobs and closing 12 plants.

GM's annual sales in North America, its largest region by volume, fell 6.1 per cent, hurt by high gasoline prices, a weak housing market, a subprime meltdown and a planned reduction in daily rental sales.