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Not even VW saw this coming since under VW’s group strategy, it predicted that it would be the world’s largest manufacturer by 2018. This runaway success stemmed from the pan-European scrappage schemes that favored VW.
Western European car sales have been rising all year, with Germany seeing the greatest gains. Even with the scrappage scheme ending in September, registrations still grew by 26.1% in October. In the first nine months of the year, VW Group’s sales were up 34% to 622,853 units. Much of its success could be attributed to the launch of new Golf and Polo models, which recorded increases of 54.1% and 56.2% respectively.