Volkswagen exceeds Toyota, is a global leader in the first six months of the year – BBC

AUTO

Milan , July 28, 2015 – 11:35

     
     
 

Volkswagen is the first carmaker in the world. At least for the first six months of this year. The German group has beaten (by a whisker) rival Toyota in global sales in mid-2015 and for the first time become the world leader in January-June: the Japanese company has announced that it has sold 5,022,000 vehicles in front of 5 , 04 million units of the German giant. Volkswagen has a good chance, up to this point, to bring forward by three years the target (set in 2018) to become the world leader of the four wheels, although it remains unknown of the Chinese market as the outlook increasingly uncertain.

The Easy Life. The overtaking Toyota, which is the first in three years, took place on the brakes: both automakers have had declines in sales on an annual basis by 1, 5%, in the case of Toyota, and 0.5%, with regard to the group of Wolfsburg. General Motors, the undisputed leader for 70 years until 2008, will disseminate data on the trend of the first six months on Thursday, but is expected should remain well below the 5 million cars sold.

Markets. The group of Nagoya, which has among the highlights of the hybrid Prius, the Camry sedan and Lexus high-end line, has benefited from the United States, where he fought with the 5.6% market growth, thanks to demand for NX Lexus and Toyota RAV4. By comparison, the VW brands were up 2.4%. On the Chinese market, the largest in the world, Toyota has had a good performance, in contrast to the rival who served in broader terms the slowdown in equity markets with negative effects on consumer confidence: + 10% in the first half to 512,800 vehicles against -3.9%, to 1.74 million. Volkswagen, however, benefited from the demand for cars in Europe, accelerated in the best of the last five years and a half: + 6% sales growth against 5.7% of Toyota. The two companies have had trouble in Japan: in fact, shipments were down 8.2% for Toyota and Lexus brands, and 13% for Daihatsu (another brand of the group), compared with 17% of the Wolfsburg which risks slipping behind Mercedes-Benz among the foreign cars mostly imported, for the first time in 16 years.

July 28, 2015 (modified July 28, 2015 | 11:55)

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED