Toyota adds to sales lead over GM

DETROIT – Toyota has widened its global sales lead over General Motors after bouncing back from a series of natural disasters.

The company said Friday it sold 7.4 million vehicles globally in the first nine months of this year – 450,000 more than General Motors. While Toyota’s sales rose 28 percent in that period, GM’s rose 2.5 percent, to 6.95 million cars and light-duty trucks.

Toyota’s factories were hobbled by an earthquake and tsunami in early 2011, leaving it short of cars in the U.S. and other regions. But now the company has recovered, and is building and selling more vehicles globally. Germany’s Volkswagen AG is also seeing strong global sales.

VW is closing in on GM after notching big sales gains in the U.S. this year. The maker of the Passat and Jetta cars sold 6.7 million light vehicles from January through September, up 9.7 percent from a year earlier.