by Jared Levy on October 7th, 2010
Volkswagen may not be all “sexy” just yet, but the German car maker is making an impressive push. VW hopes to not only conquer America’s GM and Ford Motor (NYSE:F) (Ford has been gaining ground in 2010) but to surpass Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) as the number-one selling vehicle in the world by 2018, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Global Sales
In 2009, the top-ten vehicle manufacturer groups, according to the total number of vehicles produced, were as follows:
- Toyota: 7,234,439 (2008: 1st place, 9,237,780)
- General Motors (GM): 6,459,053 (2nd, 8,282,803)
- Volkswagen: 6,067,208 (3rd, 6,437,414)
- Ford: 4,685,394 (4th, 5,407,000)
- Hyundai: 4,645,776 (8th, 2,777,137)
- PSA Peugeot Citroen: 3,042,311 (7th, 3,325,407)
- Honda: 3,012,637 (5th, 3,912,700)
- Nissan: 2,744,562 (6th, 3,395,065)
- Fiat: 2,460,222 (10th, 2,524,325)
- Suzuki: 2,387,537 (9th, 2,623,567)
The 2008 International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers’ ranking and sales total are in parentheses. Note that BMW and Mercedes (a division of Daimler AG) didn’t even make the cut. Also take a look at Hyundai’s jump from 8th place to 5th.
History
Volkswagen was originally formed by the German Labor Front, which was a Nazi trade union back in the late ’30s. Because many of Germany’s (and Europe’s) cars were unaffordable to most of the population, it was important for someone to build a “People’s Car” that was not only affordable but easy to drive and maintain…