Four Years Early
German carmaker Volkswagen topped the list last year in the global auto market for the first time, followed by Japanese carmaker Toyota. Hyundai-Kia Motors came in 5th in the list.
According to data released by Toyota on April 24 (local time), the company recorded 10.168 million cars in sales during April 2014 to March 2015, a 0.3 percent increase from the previous year. The figure is 63,000 units lower than the target sales of 10.231 million units that the company announced at the beginning of the year.
Accordingly, Volkswagen, which sold 10.185 million units, overtook Toyota with a margin of 17,000 units and became the leader in the market last year. Even though Toyota had hit a record high for three consecutive years since 2012, the company failed to rank 1st in the global market for the third year in a row.
By contrast, Volkswagen set a goal to become the world’s number one in 2018. However, the company met its goal four years earlier, propelled by strong sales.
Volkswagen came in 1st in the final ranking, Toyota in 2nd, General Motors in 3rd, the Renault-Nissan Alliance in 4th, and Hyundai-Kia Motors in 5th.