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The Automotive World Has a New Sales Leader

They say where two are fighting, it's the third that wins, and that certainly proved to be the case with the automotive industry.
Nissan Rogue Star Wars Edition 1 photo
Photo: Nissan
For years, Toyota has been the undisputed leader. People may have complained about a lack of imagination, dull designs, and whatnot, but the reliability of the Japanese company's cars, as well as its reputation, were enough to convince millions of others to shell out their cash every year.

Lately, Volkswagen started making claims on the title of the best-selling company, and it even managed to inch in front right before the Dieselgate scandal broke out. It kept the first spot throughout 2016, but it was always going to be an uphill battle for the German giant, one that it's still struggling to put behind it.

When Renault-Nissan decided to buy Mitsubishi, the somewhat ailing Japanese carmaker that's finding it ever more difficult to carve a niche on the market for itself, a lot of analysts said the French-Japanese-Japanese alliance would soon become the world's top seller, and they have been proved right.

In 2017, the Volkswagen Group sold 10.53 million vehicles, a record for the company, but that proved to be not enough to beat the newly formed conglomerate. With the French at Renault selling 3.76 million and Nissan registering record sales of 5.82 million, not even the low 1.03 million cars pushed out by Mitsubishi were enough to keep the group from taking up the top spot.

Meanwhile, Toyota Motor fell from the second position it held last year to an honorable third with a total of 10.2 million cars. But despite the drop, you can't help see the Japanese carmaker as a sleeping giant, one that's probably plotting a comeback as we speak.

Even though there's no denying the numbers - or the fact Nissan has had a tremendous year - there's no getting around the fact Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi managed this feat thanks to the acquisition of the latter among the three. Had it not been of the 1.03 million cars that Mitsubishi chipped in with, the two original partners would have remained in third behind both Toyota and Volkswagen. However, the move places the alliance firmly in command and makes it the new target for everyone else in the industry.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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