VW 2017 group sales gain to 10.7 m cars, beating Toyota

BERLIN(Reuters): Volkswagen group sales probably rose to around 10.7 million cars last year and kept the German behemoth ahead of Toyota as the world’s largest automaker, Bild am Sonntag reported, citing in-house VW estimates.

Higher delivery figures across the group, which includes premium brands Audi and Porsche, helped drive revenue above 220 billion euros ($264.62 billion) for the first time ever after the 2016 record of 217 billion euros, the newspaper said.

A spokesman at Wolfsburg-based VW declined comment on the report. VW is due to publish official 2017 group sales data on Jan. 17 and will release core financial results in late February.

In 2016, the first full year after VW’s emissions test-cheating “Dieselgate” scandal, group sales rose 3.8% to a record 10.3 million cars, helped by a double-digit increase in China and gains in Europe.

Toyota said last month it expected to sell 10.35 million cars worldwide in 2017 across its Toyota, Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino brands, up 2% from 2016, and 10.5 million this year.