Breaking a four-year lead for the number one position in the auto market, VW has overtaken Toyota as the world’s biggest car maker and historically, as the first German company to reach the position.
The Japanese auto maker, Toyota, which has held a steady lead in sales globally over the past four years, sold 10.175 million cars worldwide last year against 10.31 million sales made by its closest rival VW as disclosed by the latter’s last week's report.
VW has achieved this feat against the tides of a controversial emission cheat scandal that left it with several lawsuits as well as a desperate need to ‘keep its face in the public’.
The German auto giant, producer of Porsche, Audi and Skoda cars, had as a result of rising demands in China, witnessed a 3.8% rise in sales.
These developments provide an air of optimism for VW’s investors who, in the last two years, have been faced with tough decisions as to whether or not to keep their stakes in the company following the emission cheat fiasco.