One of the fastest growing car making enterprises, Volkswagen AG, is expected to march past Toyota Motors Corporation to become the world's largest car manufacturer. The illustrious automotive group is capitalising on overwhelming response in high-potential, emerging markets.
As of now, the German automotive giant is placed third in car making. However, going by current trends and sales forecast by Bloomberg, the car maker is predicted to experience an increase of 13 per cent to roll out 8.1 million vehicles this year. During this period, General Motors sales are expected to be 7.55 million units, while Toyota is expected to roll out 7.27 million cars.
Volkswagen (VW) is growing at a significant pace in China, registering twice the sales of its Indian operations. After average sales in European markets, the German automotive maker is focussing in emerging markets. Jenny Gu, Shanghai-based senior markets analyst for J.D. Power, said, ''VW realized this and put a lot of effort on emerging markets as Volkswagen (VW) had fallen 3.3% this year in German trading before today, weighed by concerns about the European debt crisis.” He added, “Emerging markets are at a stage of car-adoption by consumers and there is still a large space for sales to grow.”
One of the foremost reason of slump in sales of Toyota Motors Corporation is the loss occurred due to earthquake. Capitalising on the loss of world's leading car maker, Volkswagen (VW) will overtake the current automaker by about 50,000 units by the end of 2012. Daniel Schwarz, analyst at Commerzbank AG, quoted, “Growth in China, Europe and the U.S. are major contributors to VW’s expansion but they obviously also benefit from Toyota’s own misfortunes”.
Sales projections compiled by market consultancies JD Power, IHS Automotive and PWC Autofacts led Financial Times of London to report "In 2008 when Martin Winterkorn, VW's chief executive, vowed to overtake Toyota by 2018, few took it seriously as VW sold about three million fewer cars than its Japanese rival. But, since then VW has exploited its position as the top-selling car maker in China, the world's biggest car market, and has even managed to increase sales by eight percent this year in a stagnating European market."
Another renowned consultancy, IHS Automotive Consulting, projects Volkswagen to sell 7.76 million units of cars, followed by GM with 7.36 million units. The next automaker in their list was Toyota with 7.22 million units, Renault & Nissan with 6.62 million units and Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group with 5.83 million units.
Other successful brands of Volkswagen (VW), such as Audi and Skoda, are rapidly gaining market share in emerging car markets, viz. India and China. Seeing the market potentials, these brands are expanding by building a network of dealerships in these countries. In a quest to topple Toyota Motors Corporation, Volkswagen Group is heavily advertising in these nations. Moreover, premium brands of Volkswagen (VM), such as Lamborghini, Bentley and Bugatti, are also expected to contribute towards making the company the leading automaker of the world.
