Toyota Dethroned as World’s Largest Automaker

A year after Japanese manufacturer Toyota took the number 1 spot as world’s largest automaker from General Motors, the crown was wrestled away and took in by German Volkswagen-Porsche (VW).

Owing to state-backed stimulus packages around the globe, VW produced 4.4 million vehicles compared to Toyota’s 4 million units. Since VW gained the crown by stimulus packages, analysts believe that the hold to the number ones spot may not last long. Toyota may move back again once those package deals run out not to mention that the production demands of Toyota is picking up again. Toyota has the capacity to produce 10 million units in a single year. The remaining edge of VW over Toyota after the packages dry up will be it’s huge sales in the Chinese market.

VW also reached the milestone after a forced take-over of Porsche earlier this year when the latter failed to take-over the former. Another contributing factor is the benefits garnered by VW in the clash-for-clunkers programs in Europe. These benefits may have been better than Toyota’s sales win over Volkswagen in the United States’ own car-swap program.

American General Motors was world number 1 three years ago, now sits third globally.