Can VW reach its goal of becoming the world's number one automaker by 2018? Odds are looking good for the German company, which could potentially unseat General Motor's more than 70 years in the top spot by the end of this year. Times are changing, and VW could reach expected sales of more than 8 million units for 2011. Profiting from a sales explosion in China and other emerging markets and expanding through acquisitions has led to rapid growth for the company.

Let's be fair though; it's a very close fight. The 2011 ranking will depend on how analysts count vehicle sales from the companies' Chinese share projects. For the first of 2011, VW reported sales of 6.2 million units worldwide, Toyota 5.8 million and GM 6.8 million. Yet, GM's total includes 884,000 vehicles from its Chinese Wuling venture. With this partnership taken out of GM's total, forecasters estimate VW will finish the in the top spot. With sales up 24% this year, more than double the overall industry, the automaker is in a great position.

VW has employed several marketing strategies to try and reach its goal, which also includes selling 1 million Volkswagen vehicles in the U.S. every year by 2018- more than double the amount it currently unloads. One of these strategies, Jonathan Browning, Chief Executive of Volkswagen Group of America, explains, is embodied in the Volkswagen Jetta . Browning elucidates, "What we did with Jetta was reduce the entry price point. The average transaction price is consistent with the previous model, but the entry price point has brought new business in. The revenue [per sale] has stayed very much where we had it previously."¹ With strategies like this, both consumer and automaker come out on top. The Jetta increased in sales by 63 percent this year.

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Source:¹http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-auto-show-vw-qa-20111122,0,5820060.story