Volkswagen AG has sold more than 10 million vehicles in 2014, making it the first time the company topped eight digit annual sales.The German automaker said Sunday that it had sold 10.14 million vehicles in 2014, according to The Detroit News.
This puts VW in direct competition with General Motors for the title of world's second-largest automaker. Toyota holds the top spot as the world's largest automaker. Through the first nine months of the year, Toyota said it sold 7.615 million vehicles.
VW said its sales increased by 4.2 percent worldwide. GM has not released their official numbers, but reported 7.372 million through the first nine months of last year.
VW announced their sales results before a preview even at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. GM said it would release their sales results Wednesday.
VW sales were driven by a strong growth for Audi and Porsche, as well as continued expansion of the Czech brand Skoda. Skoda sold more than a million cars, According to The Wall Street Journal .
VW CEO Martin Winterkorn said the company is on the right track to obtaining their 2018 goal of becoming the world's largest automaker. Furthermore, sales growth world-wide is due largely to continued demand from China, where VW sold 3.68 million vehicles in 2014, an increase of 12.4 percent.
VW sales increased by 5.1 percent to 3.95 million across Europe. However, sales in North America decreased by 2 percent to 599,700 vehicles and fell by 19.8 percent to 795,700 vehicles in Latin America.
