A result of the earthquake in March, Toyota has lost its place as No. 1 global automotive manufacturers in the first half of 2011. General Motors is now ahead of Volkswagen.

From 1935, General Motors was the undisputed leader in the automotive market. Except that this status has changed in 2008 with the economic crisis. Bankrupt the following year, the group of Detroit has consistently lost its place as No. 1 in favor of Toyota. Since then, GM (which owns Cadillac,  for example) found an ascending form and the sales curve continues to climb. In the first half of 2011, the manufacturer has increased sales by 8.9% for a total of 4.536 million vehicles sold. These figures place him squarely in the first place worldwide.

I must say that, struck by the earthquake in Japan in March, Toyota had to halt production on the first half. As a result, its sales fell 22% to be limited to 3.71 million units. It is obviously very far from the estimates earlier this year. Toyota even falls to third-place  car manufacturers. For example, with sales up to 14% (4.13 million cars sold). Volkswagen has well captured the second place. And if we take into account in the calculations the parent and subsidiaries owned more than 50%, the German group would even before General Motors.

However, the upheaval at the top could only be temporary. The Toyota production system has indeed found an efficient operation much more quickly than expected. The Japanese company and should see his production returning to a normal rhythm in september.  Furthermore, according to experts, it could get its world from the beginning of 2012.