After bankruptcy, GM re-emerges as world’s No 1 automaker

Twenty nine months after emerging from a humiliating bankruptcy, US auto giant General Motors has once again regained its title of the ''world's largest automaker'' in 2011, a year that saw Japanese carmaker Toyota being toppled from the top slot due to the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan and disrupted its components supply.

The Detroit-based carmaker sold 9.26 million vehicles last year, 7.6 per cent more than in 2010. Its closest competitor was Europe's largest carmaker Volkswagen AG sold 8.156 million vehicles, a jump of 14 per cent, with Toyota falling to third place.

Toyota is expected to publish its final sales figures for 2011 later this month, but industry experts estimates Toyota to have sold around 7.9 million vehicles, a decline of 6 per cent from 2010.

GM was the world's largest automaker for 77 consecutive years from 1931 through 2007 before Toyota surpassed it in 2008. The automaker was bleeding about $100 billion in the years before its 2009 bankruptcy, which saw it being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and temporarily removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

It received $49.5 billion aid from the US government and has since repaid $24.1 billion, which includes money from its public stock offering. Since its emergence from bankruptcy in July 2009, GM has been consistently profitable and reported net profit of $1.7 billion in the latest quarter.

Analysts estimate that GM is likely to post revenues of $154.2 billion this year, an increase of 2.9 per cent from 2010.