In China Volkswagen and GM’s largest market passenger-vehicle deliveries climbed 11 percent to 9.6 million in the first six months of the year, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said last month. Volkswagen’s deliveries in China rose 18 percent to more than 1.8 million, topping GM’s 11 percent increase to 1.73 million. Toyota, which fell behind Ford in China last year, boosted half-year sales by 12 percent to 465,900, according to the company.
Volkswagen, which sold 3.27 million vehicles in China last year, is planning to invest 18.2 billion euros ($24.4 billion) between 2014 and 2018 in new plants and products there together with its Chinese joint venture partners. Toyota has put a freeze on the building of new plants until about 2016 and President Akio Toyoda has stressed that the company is focused on building better cars rather than chasing sales volume.
“Even if Toyota makes up its mind on potential investments soon, it’ll be around 2017 when those plants can start operating,” said Takaki Nakanishi, auto analyst and CEO of Nakanishi Research Institute.
