GM published global sales numbers for the first quarter of 2013, and media from The Detroit News to Bloomberg considered it headline material that GM edged out Volkswagen – barely. Who would have thought that the scrappy maker of cars that – if the blogs are to be believed – can’t keep their wires from crossing is breathing down the neck of the formerly mighty General?
| Tracking the world’s largest | |||
| automakers: Q1 2013 | |||
| Q1’13 | Q1 ’12 | YoY | |
| Toyota | 2,434,104 | 2,705,770 | -10.0% |
| GM | 2,360,958 | 2,278,192 | 3.6% |
| Volkswagen | 2,270,000 | 2,160,000 | 5.1% |
| Source: Company data. Toyota: Production, estimate | |||
| GM: Sales. VW: Deliveries | |||
GM sold 2.36 million units worldwide in the first quarter, the company says. Volkswagen is just 90,000 units behind at 2.27 million sold. GM’s sales grew 3.6 percent in the first quarter while Volkswagen’s grew 5.1 percent – despite a very tough situation at home in Europe.
Toyota will publish its quarterly numbers some time next week, so for the time being we can only extrapolate from the first two months. The picture for the first quarter is what we probably will see for the rest of the year: A very tight race for the top spot that could be won by any of the three once the year is over.
Toyota had planned for a flat 2013 to digest the large increases in the prior year. This was before the island troubles put a crimp in their plans and those of all Japanese automakers in China. Toyota’s worldwide production was down 6.2 percent for the first two months of the year, and we expect this trend to continue.
In the same China, the race for world dominance is decided. Volkswagen sold 769,200 units in China in the first three months, up 21.3 percent from the 633,900 it sold last year. GM kept Volkswagen in check in China by selling 816,373 units, up 9.6 percent. Nevertheless, even there the race is tight, and the two contenders are separated by what counts as rounding errors in China.
Could easily have been titled “World’s Largest Automakers 2013: Toyota Maintains Narrow Lead Over GM – Tight Race Expected” since the gap between GM and Toyota is less than the gap between VW and GM.
As said it is very tight, which no-one really expected a few months ago (even after the island dispute last year). Second place (between GM and VW) was expected to be tight, but with Toyota solidly ahead. It isn`t only China where Toyota is having issues (as noted), but in the US they have lost market share this quarter.
The creative spin in many of the titles of these articles is interesting.
We’ll see what the gap will be. The blue number is just a projection, the real number will follow next week. In the grand scheme of things, it looks like a neck on neck race, that’s all.
“that could be won by all three once the year is over.”
WHAT?
It is clear what BS is saying, any of the three could win. Of course only one will win, for what it is worth.
I’m curious: what vehicles are those in the accompanying photo? I’ve never seen the proportions of headlight to grille on a GM car that way.
Both are European-market compact MPVs, VW Touran and Chevrolet Orlando (based on GM Delta II platform, built in South Korea).
Wished VW made a peoplemover such as the Touran or the Sharan in NA now that the Routan is discontinued…
Why? So no one will buy it.
You would be surprised how many Veedub 7 seaters would be sold in NA’s urban areas.
Thinking of New York, Boston, Toronto, Montreal, San Francisco, Vancouver and vicinities, just to name some.
Not that many people bought the Routan in those cities.
The new CrossBlue concept had a third row, FWIW. They might go that way, rather than the Sharan idea.
For better or worse, the Orlando is also a Canadian-market MPV.
Controllio the Routan is a completely different beast and the SUV based Crossblue looks it will be a 6 seater à-la Mazda 5. None of them actually being a car based 7 seater CUV as the models I am referring to and posted by BS above.
Thanks!
VW is on my list for consideration for any new purchases.
Gubmit Motors? Bwahahahahahahah.
Is Gubmit even a word?
If you buy a VeeDub, be sure you like the dealer. You could end up spending a lot of time there…
You’re about one letter “n” and five years behind the times.
“Get off my law” :)
Both VW and GM have made great strides in reliability. If you check truedelta (alot of time) is about 1 additional trip every other year.
The very best cars seem to have reliability rates around 1 trip every other year. And the very worst have 1 trip every year or so. With computer design and Japanese style manufacturing – most car companies are fairly reliable.
Fiat which rates way lower then either of those companies surprised the editors of car and driver with a perfect 40thousand mile run on its 500. They hated the car but it was reliable.
Volkswagen needs to focus on quality, at least here in the States. They need to get their act together or this new found success will be fleeting. My cousin bought a Jetta not too long ago (on my recommendation) and the car has had a number of issues. The worst was the creaking noise coming from the rear no one could figure out for the longest time. Turns out a number of spot welds were missed on the quarter panel. Seriously? BTW- I don’t get the ‘formally mighty’ comment about GM. They still look pretty mighty to me.