World's Largest Automakers 2013: And They're Off

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Toyota released global sales and production numbers for January 2013 today. Toyota is making good on its plans to catch its breath after a breakneck race back to the top of the pile. Toyota said its 2013 production would be flat, and flat it was with an 0.3 percent gain over January 2012. Let’s have a look at the other contenders.

Tracking the world’s largest automakers: January 2013Jan ’13Jan ’12YoYToyota812,002809,6300.3%GM./../../.Volkswagen749,900652,40014.9%Source: Company data. Toyota: Production. VW: Deliveries.

At GM, there is nothing to see. Very oddly for a global company, GM does not release monthly global data. It only releases quarterly, as part of its earnings report. We will have to wait until early May to receive reliable numbers. From then on, we will try to interpolate monthly data as we did last year.

Volkswagen continues to power ahead globally with a nearly 15 percent gain in January. The racer for “World’s Largest Automaker 2013” promises to be interesting. Volkswagen stands a good chance to displace GM from rank 2. GM and Volkswagen have a theoretical chance to win the title.Volkswagen would have to gain a little more than 10 percent over the year to reach Toyota and 10 million.

We shall see.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Schmitt trigger Schmitt trigger on Feb 27, 2013

    Or in Toyota City or Wolfsburg, for that matter.

  • Vwgolf420 Vwgolf420 on Feb 27, 2013

    Let me go ahead and be the first... Volkswagen unreliable blah blah blah... Made in Mexico blah blah blah... Toyota boring blah blah blah... Government Motors blah blah blah... Obama blah blah blah...

  • Wsn Wsn on Feb 27, 2013

    The easiest way for both VW and GM to beat Toyota in sales number is to merge. WuLing + Santana FTW!

    • See 2 previous
    • RobertRyan RobertRyan on Feb 27, 2013

      @ranwhenparked I thought it was only 10%?? Anyway the artistic number crunchers want to add the total to GM's overall tally.

  • Beerboy12 Beerboy12 on Feb 27, 2013

    Technically GM should not be on this list because there are no numbers to support the "assumption" that it comes second. VW should be second and Renault/Nissan 3rd... or is that Ford?

    • RobertRyan RobertRyan on Feb 27, 2013

      Ford is having a lot of problems outside of the lucrative pickup business in North America. Currently ranked 7th globally.

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