Volkswagen plans to overtake Toyota as world's largest by 2015

[Kitdy]

From Autoblog:

Volkswagen has revealed that it plans to take on the newly minted global leader Toyota and become the world's largest carmaker by 2015. The ambitious goal was confirmed by Michael Kern, head of sales and marketing for the Volkswagen brand, who said they aim to beat Toyota on both vehicle sales and profitability.
According to Kern, VW plans to bring 12 new models to its lineup in the next three years, a level unprecedented by any large carmaker. Kern was also quoted in German magazine Auto Motor Und Sport as saying "we are going to expand our presence in the United States, Russia, India and other markets."

One of the previews at the recent Frankfurt Motor Show was the up! minicar concept. Small cars are expected to be the Next Big Thing as the Indian and Chinese middle class mobilize.

As of 2007, however, Volkswagen is far behind Toyota and GM in sales. The company will manage to sell just over 6 million cars compared to more than 9 million for the two leaders.

Seems to be pretty damn ambitious, they have quite a lot of ground to make up on if they want to be #1 in less than ten years.

[faksta]

Pretty good to see my country among one of main car markets for next years

[digitalcraft]

This is delusional.

[NSXType-R]

What number are they right now?

It does sound ambitious. They need to find places for the 12 new cars to go. The way I see it now, I don't see any holes in their lineup if you include all the cars companies that are involved with VW (Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, etc).

[The_Canuck]

What number are they right now?

I believe they are at 5.

[NSXType-R]

I believe they are at 5.

So who else do they have to beat? Chances are those companies are ramping up production too. Hard to do, to say the least. Not impossible though.

[The_Canuck]

Well I know Ford and GM are up there, and they're not doing that well.

Plus with Porsche behind them I don't think it'll be difficult for them to get into the top 2.

[NSXType-R]

Well I know Ford and GM are up there, and they're not doing that well.

Plus with Porsche behind them I don't think it'll be difficult for them to get into the top 2.

They always have truck sales with them though.

[Dino Scuderia]

Are they going to steal Ralf Schumacher away as a spokesman?

[fpv_gtho]

They need 50% more sales based on current figures to be #1, so to be ahead in 7 years time would be ambitious at best. Toyota arent likely to fall back either, but GM could go either way.

[Quiggs]

1.8T can never lose.

[coolieman1220]

big profit marjin

[IBrake4Rainbows]

Quality/Profit > Quantity.

for proof - see Ford, GM, et al.

[Ingolstadt]

They need the US market dearly, which currently are addicted to Jap products.

China is another avenue, as long as Japan is still not willing to admit it's mistakes and befriend china, their products can never make it like how they should elsewhere.... and oh.. volkswagens are everywhere in china....

[adrenaline]

To take the global top spot within less than a decade will take quite a miracle. To beat Toyota in such a short space of time, they would need to merge with another major automaker. Or perhaps add to their brand portfolio. China is exploding - so they'd want to put a lot of focus on that market.

I'd enjoy seeing a non-US automaker challenge Toyota. If they are serious about becoming number one, I'd lean more towards 15 years for them to expand at a safe rate.