Largest car manufacturer in the world 2017
19.01.2018
O Officially, the title of “world's largest automaker” is irrelevant for Toyota and VW: Both companies prefer to be profitable. Toyota has achieved this well: The Japanese are expecting new records for sales and profit for the current 2017/2018 financial year. The turnover is forecast at 29 trillion yen, the profit at 2.4 trillion yen (17.6 billion euros). That corresponds to a return of 8.3 percent. Volkswagen had a return on sales of 7.5 percent in the first half of 2017. The figures for the full year have not yet been published.
However, VW is ahead in terms of sales: the group delivered 10.74 million vehicles worldwide in 2017. Toyota sold 10.5 million vehicles in the same period.
VW is growing in the USA and China in 2017
The group with its car brands Audi, Lamborghini, Seat, Skoda and VW is growing especially in China and the USA; In Germany, the sales incentives for owners of older diesels According to the Handelsblatt, Volkswagen “just got out of the red zone”.
VW's goal for 2018 was to be bigger
VW boss Matthias Müller had this the goal of his predecessor to become the world's largest automaker has been cashed in: profit comes before size. Winterkorn had set the target for 2018, and VW achieved it under Müller in 2016. VW will announce in March what the return for 2017 will look like. The exact sales figures will then also be on the balance sheet.
However, the boss of Renault-Nissan Carlos Ghosn claims the crown for the world's largest carmaker for himself or for Renault-Nissan and the new partner Mitsubishi: You have more than 1.6 million passenger cars and light commercial vehicles sold and VW (1.7 million) include the sales of the truck subsidiaries MAN and Scania. They make up around 200,000 vehicles.
In 2016, VW was just ahead of Toyota and GM
The fiscal year at Toyota ends on March 31; after that it can be compared exactly again. In 2016, VW replaced Toyota as the world's largest automaker, and General Motors (GM) was left behind. It was close, however, the Wolfsburg were 100,000 cars ahead of their pursuers.
Toyota was the largest automaker for five years
The Toyota Group, which also includes the small car manufacturer Daihatsu Motor and the commercial vehicle manufacturer Hino Motors, came to a total of 10.17 million vehicles in 2016. That wasa narrow increase of 0.2 percent compared to the previous year. It was the first time in five years that the Japanese industry leader had to give up leadership as the largest automaker. Above all, the rapid growth in China helped Volkswagen rise to the new number 1. The Group sold 3.982 million cars in China in 2016, 12.2 percent more than in 2015. Diesel does not play a major role in the world's largest car market.
