VW becomes world’s top car maker despite emissions scandal

The Volkswagen Group has manufactured more cars than Toyota and General Motors in the first half of 2016, and is now the largest producer – and seller - of cars in the world.

Despite the ongoing emissions scandal, VW's production for the first six months' of 2016 has been confirmed at 5,268,000 cars. Toyota produced 5,033,177 cars, while GM's total figure has yet to be released, but is known to be smaller.

These figures change slightly when car sales are taken into account: Volkswagen Group sold 5,199,000 cars, while Toyota sold 4,991,741 across its four brands: Toyota, Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino. GM sold 4,760,000 cars in the same period.

VW’s operating profit took a substantial dip compared to the same period last year, falling from £6.8billion (around Rs 60,127 crore) in the first half of 2015 to £5.3billion (around Rs 46,864 crore) in the same period of 2016. Production is also down by 0.6 percent compared with the first half of last year – VW produced 46,000 fewer cars this year. Despite of this, its sales increased by 2.1 percent (109,000 cars).

Toyota’s production increased by 0.4 percent in the first six months of 2016, even though sales fell by 0.6 percent.

Volkswagen Group brands also fell out of the top 50 in the July 2016 UK Customer Service Index; Skoda and Audi both placed in the rankings in 2015, but since the emissions scandal, both have slipped.