Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Argues It’s The Biggest Automaker [UPDATE]

These numbers show that 10.6 million vehicles were sold in 2017.

[UPDATE] The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance has posted the final sales numbers for 2017, with combined sales standing at 10,608,366 units. Last year, Group Renault delivered 8.5 percent more vehicles than Nissan. Nissan shipped 5,816,278 cars (up 4.6%). Mitsubishi saw a 10% increase in deliveries at 1,030.454 vehicles. For a deeper look at the figures based on region and automaker, see the attached press release.

The Volkswagen Group had a remarkable 2017, despite the Dieselgate scandal. The record 10.74 million vehicles delivered to customers saw a significant increase of 4.3 percent. VAG’s December sales were particularly impressive with almost 1 million vehicles (998,800 units) being shipped around the globe. This is an 8.5% increase over December 2016.
But was this enough to keep the VW Group in control of its sales crown. If you’re asking the newly formed Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, the answer would have to be “no.” According to the alliance’s CEO, Carlos Ghosn, the company he’s running is technically the biggest car manufacturer in the world with more than 10.6 million light private and commercial vehicles sold.

Yes, 10.6M 10.74M. However, the French-Japanese liaison’s chief argues that although they don’t include the number of heavy trucks that are delivered, the Germans do take into account sales from Scania or MAN. These two brands make up roughly 200,000 units of total VW Group sales. Ghosn stated that VAG would be in second place without these brands. He went on to mention “there can be no further discussion” about who claimed the number one spot in 2017: the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, which also includes Russia’s AvtoVAZ , Romania’s Dacia, as well as the revived Datsun low-cost brand.

Toyota’s final numbers from last year are not yet available. However, the company expects third place with 10.35M vehicles, which is 2% more than 2016. Toyota, including Lexus and Daihatsu Hino, expects to increase sales in 2018 and reach 10.5M.

Mercedes claimed first place in 2017 when it came to premium automakers with around 2.3 million cars. This surpassed BMW’s 2.08M performance. Audi came in third with 1.87M units worldwide.

For those who aren’t familiar, the top three largest automakers in 2016 (including other companies they own), were the Volkswagen Group (10.3M), Toyota (10.2M), and Renault-Nissan (9.96M).