Volkswagen has overtaken Ford as the third largest carmaker based on vehicle sales. Volkswagen's wholesales, including sales to dealers, rose 7.2% in the first half to 3.31 million, compared to Ford's wholesales of almost 3.22 million.
Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagens chief executive, said: ‘We are delighted that the Volkswagen group has made it to the global automobile industry’s top three for the first time. This shows that we are on the right track with our ever-stronger international presence and, above all, our product program.’ He added: ‘We will systematically push ahead with our growth course even at the present difficult market environment.’
125,000 of Fords units were reportedly contributed by Jaguar and Land Rover, which were sold to India’s Tata motors earlier this year.
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 4 3"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1 1"%3E%3C/svg%3E)