If sales continue to grow steadily in emerging markets, then it looks very likely that by the end of this year, Volkswagen AG will overtake Toyota as the world's biggest volume producer of automobiles.
VW's sales, which ranked third in 2010 are expected to rise by some 13 percent this year, resulting in a total of 8.1 million vehicles finding owners across the globe, according to projections from three different auto analysts, surveyed by Bloomberg.
The surge is expected to come primarily from China, where gains are expected to be around 20 percent for VW and also India, where the automaker's volume is forecast to more than double.
According to Jenny Gu, a senior market analyst for J.D. Power & Associates, based in Shanghai, "Emerging markets are at a stage of car-adoption by consumers and there is still a large space for sales to grow. VW realized this and put a lot of effort on emerging markets."
Toyota, by contrast, is still struggling in the wake of the March 11 natural disaster in Japan. In addition, the company also had to suspend operations in Thailand recently due to heavy floods, though analysts at IHS Automotive believe that Toyota has every chance of recovering and nudging VW out of the lead as the largest vehicle producer next year, provided its recovery remains on track. Current estimates from IHS peg Toyota selling some 8.4 million vehicles next year, about 500,000 more than Volkswagen.
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Volkswagen Poised to Overtake Toyota as World's Largest Automaker on Autoguide.com
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