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VW takes world sales crown from Toyota for first half of 2015

Despite uncertainty in major markets like Russia and China, Volkswagen is wearing the global sales crown for the first half of the year to overtake Toyota. Through the first six months of 2015, VW sold 5.04 million vehicles, which only narrowly beat its Japanese rival's 5.02 million, Reuters reports. The half-year trophy also placed the German brand one step closer to the goal of being the world's largest automaker. VW can't just cruise through the second half of 2015 to continue wearing the crown, though. The company is a major player in China, and that might start to be a disadvantage soon. Auto demand there is expected to be weak for the rest of the year, which could mean dire effects for companies around the world. According to Reuters, the Western European market shows few signs of a sudden surge, either. To turn things around, VW is working on a massive realignment to be more responsive by organizing its 12 brands under four separate holding companies. One factor in VW's favor is that Toyota is facing its own sales struggles across the globe. In the last fiscal year, the Japanese automaker had growing profits but actual volume was down. At the time, the company predicted a drop to 8.9 million vehicles for the current fiscal period. According to Reuters, Toyota has had problems growing in emerging markets and dealing with higher taxes on small vehicles in Japan. For all of 2014, Toyota held the sales trophy with 10.23 million sales, and VW was in second place with 10.14 million. General Motors came in third with 9.92 million. The year was the first time that VW or Toyota had ever surpassed 10 million vehicles over the stretch of a calendar. Related Video:

Daily Driver: 2015 Volkswagen CC

Daily Driver videos are micro-reviews of vehicles in the Autoblog press fleet, reviewed by the staffers that drive them every day. Today's Daily Driver features the 2015 Volkswagen CC Executive, reviewed by Seyth Miersma. You can watch the video above or read a transcript below. And don't forget to watch more Autoblog videos at /videos. Show full video transcript text [00:00:00] Hi, guys. This is Seyth with Autoblog, and I'm driving the 2015 Volkswagen CC. The version of the car I'm in is the VR6 4motion car, so it's got a six-cylinder engine and all-wheel drive. This six-cylinder is actually a little bit of an odd duck at this point for the class. It's a 3.6 liter V6. It makes 280 horsepower, 265 pound-feet of torque. It's really living in a world that's been [00:00:30] overtaken by potent, two-liter turbos. I think something that's particularly difficult, especially in light of what I know about the Volkswagen family, the new engines getting great fuel economy. The 1.8T and obviously the TDI are real champs in that regard. Unfortunately, this VR6 is really sucking down the premium. These days, a 20 MPG combined rating is not particularly good. This definitely isn't a sports car. If you throw it hard into a corner, it leans a little bit, you can feel some roll [00:01:00] through the suspension. Handling is tidy, but it's not particularly precise. Of course, it's not really meant to be. This is a car that's meant to be great on the highway, great cruiser, look pretty stylish, and with a good powertrain, it can be exciting enough. Because you're not getting anything else that's very sports car-like about this car, other than the power delivery, and even there it's not quite on-pace with some of the sporty sedans that you can buy for right around the same money. It just makes for an interesting mix; something that's a little bit fast, [00:01:30] not very fuel-efficient, not a great handler, not a premium badge. Let's cut down right to it. This car is $44,400 and some change. Again, the VR6 4motion Executive Trim level, which means it pretty much gets everything you can get in a CC. We've got leather seats; they are heated. They have a massaging seat on the driver's side. I've got some 18-inch wheels that look pretty good. Big head unit with touch-screen and [00:02:00] navigation, satellite radio, better sound system. Just in general, the car feels very well-appointed. It feels like an entry-level luxury car.

VW, Fiat, Mercedes could be CNG winners in Europe

Fiat ads in the US try to play up the exotic, sexy side of Italian culture. On the home front in Italy, however, passenger-vehicle sales are marked by something less edgy and quite a bit more practical: the growth of compressed-natural-gas (CNG) powered car sales. In fact, Italy is leading a group of European countries where CNG sales are on the upswing and may be benefiting automakers like VW, Fiat and Mercedes-Benz, according to Automotive News. VW started sales of its Golf TGI natural-gas vehicle this year – the company's fourth in Europe – while Mercedes-Benz added a natural-gas B-class model. Fiat accounts for about 50 percent of CNG vehicles sold on the continent. In all, Europe's CNG sales through September totaled about 67,000, up seven percent from a year earlier, Automotive News Europe says, citing research firm JATO Dynamics. And the number of CNG vehicles on Europe's roads could jump tenfold within the next decade. The draw is a combination of lower refueling prices and a CNG drivetrain that typically emits less CO2 than diesel vehicles. As for Italy, about five percent of new-vehicle sales are CNG. To put that into perspective, hybrids, battery-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and diesels combined to account for about 4.2 percent of US vehicle sales last year. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Volkswagen Green Fiat Mercedes-Benz Volkswagen Natural Gas Vehicles CNG