DETROIT: General Motors remained second in global car sales last year behind Toyota, but third-place Volkswagen narrowed the gap, according to figures issued by the companies Tuesday on the sidelines of the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit.
GM, which had been the world's most prolific carmaker for decades before its reorganization in a government-led bailout and bankruptcy reorganization, had unit sales grow 4.5 per cent in 2013 to 9.715 million cars.
The Detroit-based company's sales include European subsidiary Opel.
Volkswagen had an edge in growth at 4.8 per cent, reaching what it said was more than 9.7 million vehicle sales.
The figure includes VW's lorry subsidiaries MAN and Scania, which had combined sales of about 200,000; excluding the heavy trucks, VW sold about 9.5 million cars.
The German company's management is pursuing the goal of becoming the leading global carmaker by 2018.
Industry analysts expect Toyota to remain number one for 2013, though the Japanese carmaker has not yet reported sales figures. (QNA)
