It’s official, Whether it be a long term effect of diesel-gate or not, the VW group is no longer the world’s largest automotive manufacturer in terms of sales volumes. As of 2017’s half-yearly report, the worldwide sales of the Renault Nissan Alliance in the first half of the year came in at an absolutely staggering 5.27 million units! In comparison, VWs 5.15 million and Toyota’s 5.13 million units making them the second and third. In fact even GM, the world’s longest standing automotive conglomerate, the retired champion in terms of global sales volumes, sold only 4.7 million units. VW had, as of the end of last year, still held the title selling 10.31 million units over the year. If we extrapolate on Renault-Nissan’s current sales volumes for the rest of the year, you can see that it quite easily clears the mark. Although it is important to remember, the second half of the year is usually when sales pick up for an auto manufacturer.
Renault led by Carlos Ghosn said that one of the keys to their success this year is the acquisition of Mitsubishi in 2016. In fact, Mitsubishi alone added close to half a million sales to the tally. These are the half yearly global sales figures:
Renault-Dacia : 1,879,288 units
Nissan: 2,894,488 units
Mitsubishi: 494,303 units
Infiniti: 125,000 units
The Renault-Nissan Conglomerate has come a long way since it was established in 99 on the backs of two, then, struggling companies. Today it employs more than 470,000 people and has 122 manufacturing units across the globe.
“The Alliance has delivered record sales during the first semester of 2017 reaching,” Ghosn said in a statement. “We will continue to leverage our significant economies of scale and global market presence to deliver valuable synergies for our member companies this year while maintaining a strong technology lineup and offering customers breakthrough electric models.