First half of the current year goes to German automaker Volkswagen. The company has 5.04 million vehicles worldwide, beating its closest rivals Toyota and General Motors. While Toyota registered worldwide sales of 5.02 million vehicles in the first half of this year, the figure was 4.86 million for General Motors for the same period.
While these sales figures may seem staggering, all the three companies have actually experienced a slump in these figures compared to last year. The slump figure for Volkswagen is 0.5 percent, while it is 1.5 and 1.2 percent for Toyota and General Motors.
What has worked for Volkswagen is the increased demand for cars in Europe. But condition of the carmaker in its biggest market, i.e. China is not so good. It is facing tough competition there from local manufacturers who are offering cars at a much cheaper price. If Volkswagen has to fulfill its dream of becoming the largest car manufacturer in the world by 2018 then it needs reinvent itself as far as the Chinese market is concerned.
