The top 3 world automakers club excludes GM
Posted By RichC on November 10, 2009
Changes in the “big three” … world automakers that is:
- Volkswagen
- Toyota
- Ford
VW overtake Toyota as the world’s largest automaker
Well ahead of VW initial projection of becoming the world’s largest automaker by 2018, it has now officially surpassed Toyota Motor Corp. worldwide in unit production this year.
Over the weekend, German reports put VW Group at 4.4 million units for the first nine months of 2009, where Toyota has manufactured only 4.0 million units. This change is believed to be largely due to the success of government scrappage schemes that boded well with VW models.
VW Group’s sales for 2009 are up by 34 percent in the first nine months, totaling 622,853 units. 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.
Although the scrappage schemes are believed to have played a role in VW’s early success, VW continues to do well along with the rest of the automotive industry in the German market in particular. The German market saw a 26.1 percent growth in registrations in October, despite the end of scrappage schemes in September.
Another major shift in world production was noted with Ford surpassing GM as the world’s third largest automaker. Ford reported 3.7 million units produced in the first nine months of 2009, with GM trailing only slightly with 3.6 million units produced
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