Toyota, GM, VW in head-to-head race in 2013

There are strong indications that automakers could well be on pace to sell more cars this year than ever before and that highlights the tight three-way battle at the top, between Toyota, GM and Volkswagen.

Despite still struggling with a rather big slump in sales in the European region, carmakers will sell more cars this year than ever before, but this will be taken with a healthy pinch of salt, as this is being speculated only by a forecast published in a study and not raw data.

The world’s 16 active groups should settle down a bit after the forecast this year of about 71 million vehicles, 3.5 % more than last year, as the Centre of Automotive Management (CAM) had announced. For the coming year, CAM assumes a slightly slower sales growth of around 3 % to 73 million.

The investigation was made based on compiled data from the figures for the first three quarters of 2013 released by automakers. The data also paints the picture for the three-way battle between Toyota, General Motors and Volkswagen.

According to the forecast, Toyota is likely to decide the head-to-head race for the full year with 9.75 million cars, only just ahead of General Motors 9.7 million units. Volkswagen therefore remains third, with around 9.6 million cars, due to market weakness in Europe and its sales problems in the United States.

The year 2014 could see, for the first time, all three industry giants exceed the sales level of 10 million cars. Volkswagen would already have achieved one of its goals set for 2018, four years early.