By comparison, Toyota said on Tuesday it sold 5.02 million cars between January and June, a 1.5 percent decline on year-ago levels.
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Meanwhile, General Motors (GM – Get Report), the world’s third biggest automaker, is investing $5 billion to expand its Chevrolet brand in emerging markets and create a new line of vehicles.
Martin Winterkorn the CEO at Volkswagen wanted Volkswagen to seize the top spot before 2018. Toyota, which sold 10.23 million units in 2014 is slated to fall short of its targets to 10.15 million units during the year.
U.S. sales of VW’s mass-market brand have continued their long, long losing streak, down 2.6 percent for the year.
Within the first half, Toyotais revenue increased in U.S., Mexico and China.
The spot has been dominated by Toyota of late, and General Motors historically.
Although Volkswagen’s accomplishment fulfills a deep aspiration to be the world’s biggest automaker, the company’s quality slipped in the path to the top – at least in the U.S. market, where its sales have struggled in recent years despite a rising industry.
Toyota also plans to launch a new Prius hybrid later this year using revamped vehicle platforms and components, although analysts say the timing is not favourable as declining petrol prices have reduced consumer enthusiasm for alternatives. The company aims to surpass the 10.1 million cars sales it made past year.
To achieve its goal set in 2007 to become the world’s largest vehicle maker, VW will have to withstand the slump in demand brought about by China’s stock market and competition from cheap sports utility vehicle (SUV) models by Chinese brands. The figure announced by Volkswagen includes sales from all of its key brands, including Audi, Porsche, SEAT, Škoda and Volkswagen.
GM, which makes the Cadillac and Opel cars, was third at 9.92 million vehicles in global sales previous year.
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The rise in sales is mainly due to Volkswagen dominance of the world largest automobile market in China. It remains to been seen if Volkswagen India, which addresses the volume auto market and sells Polo and Vento among other models, will be able to outstrip Toyota in India.
