So which company is the world's largest automaker -- Volkswagen or General Motors? A deceptively simple question. Last week, GM announced that it had sold 9.03 million vehicles in 2011, while Volkswagen says it sold 8.16 million units. So GM is the winner? Not so fast. VW notes that its commercial truck subsidiaries, MAN and Scania AB, also sold a couple of hundred thousand heavy trucks. The tally is also muddled by how you count sales from joint ventures, who controls the joint venture, and what type of vehicles are produced by the partners. Some of GM's rivals note that the automaker's global sales included 1.2 million vehicles produced by one of its Chinese joint ventures, SAIC-GM-Wuling. Pictured: David Sedgwick is editor of Automotive News China.

FRANKFURT -- Adam Opel GmbH may cooperate with Chinese automaker SAIC Motor Corp. to expand its car sales in China, a German newspaper reported. Opel is talking with SAIC about a sales partnership to sell and distribute its cars in China, according to a report in the German business publication Handelsblatt on Tuesday.

Honda Motor Co. is recalling 50,410 CR-V compact crossovers in China to repair defective wiring in the headlights, reports the Shanghai Daily, citing government regulators. The company's Chinese joint venture, Dongfeng Honda Automobile, produced the vehicles from Sept. 5 through Nov. 23 last year.

Chinese-built vehicles accounted for nearly 13 percent of vehicles sold in Chile last year, the state-owned China Daily reported, citing data from the National Automotive Association of Chile. Derco, a Chilean distributor, sells vehicles produced by Great Wall, Geely, Changan and JAC.

U.S. supplier CTS Corp. has won two new contracts to produce accelerator pedals for Chinese and Japanese automakers. The company will produce the components in its factory in Zhongzhan, in southeast China. The company, based in Elkhart, Ind., will start delivering the parts late this year.

Chinese auto parts maker Minth Group Ltd. is forming a $5 million (31.5 million yuan) joint venture with Japanese plastic and rubber products maker Tokai Kogyo Co. The 50-50 joint venture, called Wuhan Tokai Minth Automotive Parts Co., will be based in the city of Wuhan in central China.

BEIJING -- U.S. supplier ITT Corp. says it will invest $10 million to expand brake production and build an r&d center in the east China city of Wuxi. The company's motion technologies unit will invest in production, r&d, testing and training.

General Motors and Volkswagen AG produced seven of China's ten best-selling passenger vehicles last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. The Buick Excelle ranked first with sales of 254,000 units. The Chevrolet Cruze placed third and the Chevrolet New Sail ranked seventh. The Volkswagen Lavida, Jetta, Bora and Santana ranked second, fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.

Nissan Motor Co.'s joint venture with China's Dongfeng Motor Corp. has broken ground on its new assembly plant in the northeast China port city of Dalian, according to local media. Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Co. will launch production at the plant in 2014. Initially it will produce 20,000 vehicles a year, reported Dalian Daily, a Dalian-based newspaper. The plant will mainly build SUVs. Its annual output will increase to 300,000 vehicles by 2016.

BEIJING -- BMW AG will recall 3,406 Mini Cooper vehicles to repair defective electric water pumps, the state-owned Xinhua news service reported. The electric pumps pose a potential fire hazard, according to China's watchdog agency, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. The recall covers Mini Cooper S, Clubman, Cabrio and Countryman models produced from March 2006 through January 2011.