Yes, Volkswagen was the 2016 Worldwide Top Seller, taking the first position that Toyota held for a long time. Although in North America, the Japanese brand is way more popular, among Europe, Latin America and mostly in Asia, Volkswagen has an impressive acceptance above the average we are used to seeing.
To be more precise, Volkswagen (10,312,400 units in 2016) sold 98,914 more vehicles than Toyota (10,213,486 units), according to Forbes.
World Distribution
As we are talking about global stats, we need to understand that the market distribution is pretty spread and the trends we are used to seeing in North America, vary a lot with the rest of the world:
So, the top killing facts of VW first place are pretty clear:
- More than 930,000+ vehicles only in December.
- 4,2 million just in Europe.
- 4,3 million in Asia-Pacific.
- 939,000+ in North America
... and Volkswagen isn't just VW cars
Yes, and note that we are talking about manufacturers, not brands. Volkswagen counts on the statistics all VW, Audi, Porsche, SEAT & Skoda. On the following report from the Volkswagen group, you can see a detailed list by car make of their actual production for the year.
Hard to Predict
As you may or may not know, Volkswagen had a very testing year because of the media last year, as the company was involved in an alleged emissions scandal, that hurt them deeply in the US. It was alleged that the emissions data provided by Volkswagen, was not entirely accurate, which ticked off a lot of people, especially environmental activists.
A full investigation was launched, and things were eventually cleared up, but the damage appeared to have been done. Astonishingly, VW was able to overcome this negative press and managed to become the largest automobile manufacturing company for the first six months of 2016. This is especially impressive because it was the second consecutive year that VW was the biggest manufacturing company for the first six months of the year, though in 2015 Toyota were able to overtake them and claim the title.
Sold or Produced?
Well, this is kind of weird, but the actual "Title", given by the OICA is based on the number of produced units, not the ones actually sold to a client. This may sound unfair, but the manufacturer rhythm is one of the closest indicators to the actual number of sales across the globe.
Toyota has been fighting hard since taking the title from General Motors (Chevrolet, GMC...) in 2008 and keeping it since, with the exception of 2011 when GMC took it again, only for that year.
If you want to explore Volkswagen options in Canada, I suggest you by start exploring the top selling vehicles of the brand in the country: Audi and VW. Additionally, at LeaseCosts you can also explore all Best Selling Cars in Canada by exploring all our offers:
