VW tops Toyota as No. 1 car brand for sales

Staff Photo by Angela Lewis A Volkswagen Passat is on display during a June announcement of 600 new jobs through a partnership between Volkswagen and Gestamp. The project will include expanding Gestamp's existing Chattanooga facility, and constructing a new sampling facility in Enterprise South. Staff Photo by Angela Lewis A Volkswagen Passat is on display during a June announcement of 600 new jobs through a partnership between Volkswagen and Gestamp. The project will include expanding Gestamp's existing Chattanooga facility, and constructing a new sampling facility in Enterprise South.

By Mike Pare July 29, 2015 3 min read

Volkswagen has lapped Toyota Motor Corp. in global sales in the first half of the year, aided in North America by buyers of its luxury Audi and Porsche brands.

Japanese automaker Toyota, which topped the world in 2014, on Tuesday posted sales of 5.02 million vehicles in the first six months of this year. That’s down 1.5 percent from the same period a year ago as Toyota has struggled in its home market of Japan.

Volkswagen, which includes sales of its namesake VW brand as well as Audi, Porsche, Bentley and other models, sold 5.04 million vehicles globally in the same period.

VW 1st half sales

Region, sales and percent change over last year:* North America: 451,200, up 6 percent* Europe: 2.11 million, up 3.7 percent* China: 1.74 million, down 3.9 percent* South America: 297,300, down 22.5 percent* Total: 5.04 million, down 0.5 percentSource: Volkswagen

The German automaker is aiming to finish 2015 as the No. 1 car company by sales for the first time, and it’s investing $900 million in its Chattanooga assembly plant to help grow its U.S. numbers.