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Volkswagen Passes Toyota, Leading Global Sales in First Half of 2015, But Will It Last?

In case you’ve been wondering why the entire VW Group has started following Porsche’s model of offering tons of editions and variations on the same platform, it’s because the company had set itself the goal of becoming the world’s No. One carmaker (sales volume) by 2018. Well, the Germans have done it already.
VW Touareg offroading 1 photo
Photo: Catalin Garmacea
The sales numbers for the first six months of 2015 are in and VW has surpassed Toyota, taking the top position. To be more precise, VW reported global sales of 5.04 million, while Toyota managed to push 5.02 million vehicles through June.

However, both carmakers saw their sales declining, with Toyota going down by 1.5 percent and VW by 0.5 percent.

If you’ve been following the financial numbers, you know the Chinese bubble had been burst, but VW was able to avoid being too affected by the Chinese car market’s fall, despite this being its most important market. That’s because the company took advantage of the European trend, which saw the fastest growth over the last five and a half years.

The race is far from over

VW executives have been debating the sales volume target for quite some time now, as pursuing such a goal ends up affecting profitability on many occasions.

And with Toyota having passed GM, taking the same title back in 2009, the Japanese carmaker is prepared to continue fighting.

Moreover, the global chart shows plenty of unstable zones. We’ll start with China, where, apart from the slowdown, carmakers also face increasing competition from the local companies, whose policies are becoming more aggressive each year.

The two carmakers had entirely different situations concerning the Chinese crisis. While VW deliveries fell 3.9 percent, Toyota seemed to be able to ignore the trend, showing a 42 percent boost.

Moving away from China, the Russian and certain markets in Southeast Asia and South America are also troubled. As for the US, deliveries did see a 4.4 percent rise through June, but this accounted for the smallest increase since the market started recovering back in 2009.

You’d better be prepared for plenty of news on the topic of who makes the most cars for the people.
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About the author: Andrei Tutu
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In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist.
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