Volkswagen has overtaken Toyota to become the world’s largest auto manufacturer in the world. It was already Europe’s largest car manufacturer and now it has surpassed Toyota Motor Corp in worldwide production of units. Volkswagen had initially projected this target to be achieved by the year 2018 but has now surpassed initial project in 2009 itself.
In the first 9 months of the year, VW Group’s sales are up by 34 percent compared to last year. VW’s Skoda brand in particular enjoyed the greatest growth in Germany with Fabia sales up by 92.4 percent, as well as Octavia sales up by 20.4 percent.
Volkswagen sales also got leverage due to the scrappage scheme launched by various European governments. VW continued to give superb performance in worldwide automotive industry specifically in Germany. Nevertheless, in spite of ending of scrappage scheme, VW continued to register 26.1 percent growth in its sales figures in its home country.
Toyota now ranks second worldwide and Ford holds the third position of the world’s largest auto makers. According to the production figures, the VW Group manufactured 4.4 million units in the first nine months of 2009 while Toyota’s produced 4 million. Ford was listed as the world’s third largest manufacturer with 3.7 million units followed by General Motors at production of 3.6 million units worldwide.
