A little over a year ago, Volkswagen passed Ford as the third-largest automaker in the world.
But now, by adding recently acquired Porsche's sales figures into the totals – which also include those for Bentley, Audi, Skoda, Seat and Lamborghini – the German behemoth has shot past Toyota to take over the crown as the world's largest automaker.
With 4.4 million cars built so far in 2009, VW has passed Toyota by about 400,000 cars.
Industry analysts attribute VW's surge to cutting production in half earlier this year, the closing of all its plants in February and Toyota's weakness in the cash-for-clunker programs in Europe, Brazil and China.
There's still some time until the final numbers get tallied at the end of December. And Toyota is expected to build more than seven million cars this year.
But as of now, VW officials can put the champagne on ice.
But now, by adding recently acquired Porsche's sales figures into the totals – which also include those for Bentley, Audi, Skoda, Seat and Lamborghini – the German behemoth has shot past Toyota to take over the crown as the world's largest automaker.
With 4.4 million cars built so far in 2009, VW has passed Toyota by about 400,000 cars.
Industry analysts attribute VW's surge to cutting production in half earlier this year, the closing of all its plants in February and Toyota's weakness in the cash-for-clunker programs in Europe, Brazil and China.
There's still some time until the final numbers get tallied at the end of December. And Toyota is expected to build more than seven million cars this year.
But as of now, VW officials can put the champagne on ice.
