Volkswagen surpasses Toyota as world’s largest carmaker

In 2010, Volkswagen set a target of becoming the world’s largest carmaker by 2018. But, in 2015, the brand seems to be way ahead of this objective. Going by the sales figures for the first six months of 2015, the Volkswagen Group has overtaken Toyota Motor Corporation to earn the title.

Toyota announced total sales of 5.02 million cars worldwide in the first half of this year, behind the 5.04 million units announced by the Volkswagen Group earlier this month. The figure includes cars from Volkswagen’s key brands, including Audi, Skoda, Seat and Porsche. However, what’s interesting is, these numbers show a decrease for Toyota and Volkswagen, 1.5 percent and 0.5 percent respectively, for the same period last year.

Reports suggest that Volkswagen’s sales have been solid owing to the high demand for the brand in Europe, where the market is growing at its fastest rate for over five years now. More specifically, sales of the Volkswagen Passat and Porsche Macan have helped sales of Volkswagen Europe rise up by 6 percent. Meanwhile, the Japanese brand has had to deal with a slump in China, while failing to experience the same gains in Europe.

This isn’t the first time Volkswagen has achieved this feat; in 2009 it took outdid Toyota by delivering 4.4 million vehicles in the first nine months of that year, compared with Toyota’s 4 million.