After many years of threatening Toyota, VW has finally done the trick, despite the dieselgate PR disaster.
The Volkswagen Group has eclipsed Toyota Motor Corporation as the world’s best-selling auto-maker for the first time, beating its Japanese rival by about 100,000 units for the 2016 calendar year.
VW recorded overall sales of 10.31 million units last year from its stable of brands that includes Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Audi, Skoda, Seat, Porsche, and the MAN and Scania truck divisions.
The runner-up Toyota’s global total sales, which includes Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino products, hit 10.17 million units.
The result is fantastic news for VW which has had to endure huge financial penalties, following its admission in September 2015 that it used an emissions cheating software in a number of its diesel VW, Skoda and Audi models.
VW Passenger Cars was the company’s biggest selling brand, with just under six million units sold, a 2.8 percent increase over 2015, followed by Audi which grew by 3.8 percent to 1.87 million sales, then Czech brand Skoda with 1.12 million units, a boost of 6.8 percent.
Porsche’s global sales lifted by 5.6 percent last year to reach a record 237,800, largely on the back of its successful Macan mid-size SUV, while the launch of the new-generation T6 Transporter helped lift VW Commercial Vehicles sales by 11.4 percent over 2015 to 480,100.
Going against the trend was the MAN truck brand took a dip, dropping by 0.2 percent to 102,200 units, while “expected figures” for Scania were 80,800, a 5.5 percent lift.
The big mover was China with registrations growing 12.2 percent.
There were geographic anomalies with Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe, sales increased by 3.4 and 7.0 percent respectively, but interest in the brand took a big dive in South America, with a drop of 24.6 percent. Somebody got something wrong in the Carnaval.
Volkswagen Group CEO Matthias Mueller said that its future was looking bright.
“2016 was a very challenging year for us,” he said. “We made strides in resolving and overcoming the diesel crisis and at the same time initiated a fundamental change process with ‘Together – Strategy 2025’ to get Volkswagen ready for the future of mobility.
“Nonetheless, we managed to stabilize operating business in difficult conditions: the fact that we handed over more than 10 million vehicles to customers last year bolsters the Group and its brands as we head for the future.”
Toyota’s total was up just 0.2 percent over its 2015 numbers, with 2.23 million sales in its Japanese home market – a 2.8 percent boost – and 7.94 million in the rest of the world.
Japanese production numbers were steady, but international production figures grew by 2.1 percent, with Toyota now the fourth largest car manufacturer in the United States behind American car-makers GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler.
Toyota overtook its General Motors as the top selling car-maker in 2008, breaking GM’s 77-year stronghold on the title, but have now lost the top spot to VW.
