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The Volkswagen Group is on course to beat Toyota and become world’s biggest carmaker by 2018 according to its chairman, Dr Martin Winterkorn.

Talking to Autocar in Wolfsburg as the new VW Polo received its the 2010 Car of the Year Award, Winterkorn predicted that the group’s seven car marques - VW, Audi, Skoda, Seat, Lamborghini, Bentley and Bugatti - will together account for more than 10 million car sales a year by 2018.

Winterkorn also revealed that the group had 60 “new models ...Read the full article

Autocar:

The Volkswagen Group is on course to beat Toyota

Toyota's just thrown a piston:

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/01/26/breaking-toyota-temporarily-halts-sales-of-selected-models/

Given how Audi were smashed in the 80s in the US with their 'unintended acceleration' Toyota could be literally finished off by class action lawsuits in the US. What may save them is they now employ tens of thousands in the US and the US needs non Mc jobs now more than it needs lawsuits. But the once mythical Toyota has gone.

Autocar:

If you accept that the main reason we want to cut weight is to improve efficiency, and there are other, possibly cheaper measures we can still take — further improvements to aerodynamics, reducing tyre resistance, cutting friction, improving engine design.

- just what I was saying in response to Hilton Holloway's focus on weight:

http://www.autocar.co.uk/blogs/designlanguage/archive/2010/01/26/jaguar-lightens-up.aspx

Good to see VW's leadership are sensible enough to be not dogmatic.

Autocar:

The Volkswagen Group is on course to beat Toyota and become world’s biggest carmaker by 2018 according to its chairman, Dr Martin Winterkorn....

Mine's bigger than yours, eh?

Lets face it VW definately know what they are doing, taking what were thought of as substandard brands such as Seat and Skoda and transforming them into respected and profitable ones.

I think VW deserve to be number 1, the only worry i have is that they could end up like Toyota, being so obsessed by numbers that they loose sight of quality and their customers as Toyota have done recently, also dont forget the financial trouble Toyota were in recently due to their desire to beat GM to number 1.

As a happy VW customer i hope they succeed.

 

BigEd:

Given how Audi were smashed in the 80s in the US with their 'unintended acceleration' Toyota could be literally finished off by class action lawsuits in the US.

No kidding. Toyota recalled 4m cars last year because of the infamous 'floormat problem', but now we're being told that the company will

"...recall approximately 2.3 million vehicles to correct sticking accelerator pedals on specific Toyota Division models. Toyota has investigated isolated reports of sticking accelerator pedal mechanisms in certain vehicles without the presence of floor mats."

Seems there's now a 'no floormat problem' as well, though whether the 'no floormat problem' turns out to be the 'floormat problem' all along will determine how quickly Toyota fall apart.

Shutting down factories and suspending sales of half your line-up in the world's #1 market must be a first - let alone a first for the world's #1 manuf.?

ThwartedEfforts:

Shutting down factories and suspending sales of half your line-up in the world's #1 market must be a first - let alone a first for the world's #1 manuf.?

turns out they(Toyota) didn't initiate this shutdown, they were instructed to by US authorities.

Toyota - finished. Saab reborn. All good news.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/01/27/report-toyota-was-legally-required-to-stop-selling-recalled-mod/

By keep raising the bar on quality, which to me is more important than speed or volumes of total vehicles built, should allow Volkswagon the right to retain it's position as the World leader in manufacturing. If the very reliable Beetle is taken into account with the millions still on the road today worldwide, the likes of Toyota could never catch up on quality or number.

Autocar:

We’re not like other car groups, who let their brands mix together

Seat Exeo, anyone?

Aiming for being the biggest should never be a goal in itself. That's exactly why Toyota's quality is not the same today as it used it be. Toyota learned it's lesson, but obviously VW is ignoring that.

Also, having so many brands i it's stable is can't be very profitable, given that 2 or more brands will compeat for the same marked, making production less profitable