For the first time in 77 years, General Motors can no longer describe itself yesterday as the world's biggest carmaker.
The Detroit company, now dependent on billions of dollars in government aid for its survival, said yesterday its global sales dipped to 8.35m last year, behind Toyota Motor's 8.97m.
GM's shipments fell by 11 per cent; Toyota's dropped 4 per cent. Total industry sales shrank by 3.5m vehicles last year, with the US, Japan and Europe accounting for about half the drop.
Mike DiGiovanni, GM's sales analyst, brushed off losing the top slot, saying: “We're really focused on being a healthy, profitable company.”
However, the rivalry between America's and Japan's largest carmakers remains intense. They are racing to bring plug-in rechargeable cars to the market.
Mr DiGiovanni said GM remained ahead in emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China. It sold 64 per cent of its vehicles outside North America last year, up from 59 per cent in 2007.
參考譯文：
昨日，通用汽車(General Motors) 77年來(lái)第一次無(wú)法再自稱為全球最大的汽車制造商。
這家底特律公司如今正依靠政府提供的數(shù)以十億計(jì)美元援助維持生存。該公司昨日表示，去年其全球銷量降至835萬(wàn)輛，低于豐田汽車(Toyota Motor)的897萬(wàn)輛。
通用汽車的發(fā)貨量下降了11%；豐田發(fā)貨量的降幅為4%。全行業(yè)去年銷量下降350萬(wàn)輛，美國(guó)、日本和歐洲占了下降銷量中的一半左右。
通用汽車的銷售分析師邁克?迪喬瓦尼(Mike DiGiovanni)對(duì)失去榜首位置不以為然，他表示：“我們真正注重的是成為一家健康、盈利的企業(yè)?！?/SPAN>
然而，美日兩國(guó)最大汽車制造商之間的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)仍十分激烈。目前，它們正競(jìng)相要向市場(chǎng)推出插電式汽車。
迪喬瓦尼表示，在巴西、俄羅斯、印度和中國(guó)等新興市場(chǎng)，通用汽車依然領(lǐng)先。去年其64%汽車是銷往北美以外，高于2007年的59%。
英國(guó)《金融時(shí)報(bào)》伯納德?西蒙(Bernard Simon)多倫多、尼科爾?布洛克(Nicole Bullock)紐約、約翰?里德(John Reed)底特律報(bào)道
（轉(zhuǎn)載）
