Firm set to pip rivals as leading car maker

Volkswagen Group said on Friday its passenger car deliveries rose 0.9% in 2018 to a record 10.83-million, putting it neckand-neck with Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi in the race to be the world’s biggest car maker.

Rivals Toyota and Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi have not released 2018 registration figures, but the Franco-Japanese alliance sold 10.6-million cars in 2017 and racked up sales of 5.54- million cars in the first half of 2018.

Toyota in December released a forecast for total global sales of 10.55-million cars in 2018, but has yet to confirm official numbers. Volkswagen said the VW brand delivered 6.24-million vehicles in 2018, while premium brands Audi and Porsche posted registration figures of 1.81million and 256,000 vehicles, respectively.

This makes Audi the thirdbiggest-selling premium brand behind BMW, which delivered 2,125,026 cars and leader Mercedes-Benz, which sold 2.31million passenger cars.

Volkswagen said the trade dispute with the US government had damped the business climate in China, its most important market, over the second half of 2018.

Volkswagen’s head of sales, Christian Dahlheim, said in a webcast on Friday that he expected demand in China to remain stable in 2019, although the first quarter would be challenging.