Volkswagen Beats Toyota to Become the World's Biggest Automaker

According to UK's Guardian, "Volkswagen-Porsche has overtaken Toyota to become the world's largest manufacturer as this German group benefits from state-backed stimulus package around the world."

Report shows that Volkswagen has produced 4.4 million vehicles so far this year, leaves behind its Japanese rival, Toyota, which has produced 4 million vehicles since January.

This year is a successful year to Volkswagen so far. Before achieving the crown of the automakers' worlds, VM had its sweet victory as it reached the milestone in part by taking over Porsche - which Porsche was forced to do after it failed in an attempt to take over Volkswagen earlier this year.

The news maybe doesn't surprise Toyota much. Toyota had to half its production earlier this year and shut down all plants in February due to low demand in serious recession. In contrast, the number of Volkswagen's car, now the combined entity Volkswagen-Porsche, which has built 4.4 million cars to date, which is much higher than Toyota' mark. Volkswagen also benefited much more than Toyota from the European cash-for-clunkers programs, while Toyota only saw more sales than Volkswagen spurred by the US car-swap program.

In a concerned matters, General Motors; the giant of auto world in the past that had to file for bankruptcy in June due to the recession, is taking steps to gaining its image again. America's largest carmaker - the world's largest just three years ago - now sits on the third place, behind Toyota and Volkswagen.

But many people think that this change will not permanent. The Guardian notes that Toyota has the capacity to make 10 million vehicles a year but it is expected to make only 7 million in 2009 as the demand is low. The title-holder Volkswagen will have to do its best to increase its long-term production and continue staying ahead, especially in the Chinese market, where both of them spends many of time and efforts to introduce their models into the most crowed country in the world.

After all, the race between large automaker will continue in long-term, as the global economy is giving signs of recovery and potential markets for cars in the world are still very huge.

Source

Guardian.co.uk