While Toyota Is Barely Edging GM in Worldwide Unit Sales, AP Report ‘Forgets’ Its Revenues Are Over 50% Higher
In a Monday Associated Press dispatch , reporter Tom Krisher virtually celebrated the idea that Government/General Motors “may be Number 1 again,” with happy talk of “dethroning” and “overtaking” the Japanese maker. Nowhere did Krisher mention the inconvenient fact that Toyota's revenues dwarf GM's to the point where comparing unit sales is an absurd waste of time. Specifically: Toyota's sales from its automotive operations for the first six months of its fiscal year (April through September, 2010) amounted to 8,863.6 billion yen (go to the segment information in the report), which translates to roughly $104 billion at an average exchange rate of 85 yen to the dollar. GM's revenues during those same two quarters were $67.2 billion . Thus, Toyota's auto operations are over 50% bigger than all of GM. We're supposed to be impressed that GM is close to selling the same number of cars? We wouldn't be if Krisher had chosen to report revenues, something any who follows business news would clearly have wanted to know. Here are a few paragraphs of Krisher's free advertising — er, report : Resurgent GM nips at Toyota's heels in sales race
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on January 25, 2011. Filed under