The latest figures show VW AG has edged GM in worldwide sales, with VW producing 9.73 million total good for number 2, behind Toyota, relegating GM to 3rd with a production of 9.71 million.
The quoted figures include VW’s heavy-duty truck sales from its MAN SE and Scania AB units, so some still say GM is the second-best selling automaker among light-duty vehicles.
Top of the tree was Toyota which sold 9.98 million vehicles in 2013, retaining the title as the world’s largest automaker for a second straight year. Its total includes sales from its Hino Motors and Daihatsu units.
Toyota was also the top-selling manufacturer from 2008-10, but GM regained the title in 2011 after Toyota production sank because of natural disasters in Asia. Before then, GM was the world’s largest automaker from 1931 through 2007.
Volkswagen AG has made its future plans known to be the world’s largest manufacturer by 2018 and has aggressive strategies to grow sales in the United States to 800,000 vehicles by 2018.
Michael Horn, a longtime VW executive who was named the new chief of VW in the U.S. late last month, told reporters at the North American International Auto Show earlier this month that the brand will grow commensurate with that output.
VW Group chief Martin Winterkorn set the sights even higher, commenting on the goal set in 2008 to sell 1 million VW and Audi vehicles in the U.S. by 2018. “If we get the product, yes, we can meet the goal,” Horn said. “If we want to be really successful, we need to do more than this because to get the economies of scale, to get the engines, the drivetrains being produced here, that’s when you start to get away from the dollar-euro exchange rate issues … I think it’s a great strategy.”
In 2011, VW opened an assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., its first U.S. plant since it closed a Pennsylvania factory in 1986. It now assembles in North America more than 72 percent of the vehicles it sells in the United States, and has vowed to boost that to at least 75 percent.
VW announced last month it will invest $7 billion in North America over five years, and confirmed it will bring a mid-size SUV to the U.S. market in 2016, but did not confirm if it will build these at the Chattanooga plant.
The VW Group has more than a dozen brands across the world including Audi, Skoda, Lamborghini, Bentley, Porsche and Seat.
