VW's surge in market share is driven in part by government incentives.
But the big question is: What are the Japanese and Europeans doing right that Detroit should emulate?
Volkswagen may beat Toyota as top sellerTOKYO/FRANKFURT (Reuters) -- Volkswagen's global vehicle sales fell by 11.4% in the first quarter but its market share gains may have let it overtake Japan's Toyota Motor as the world's top-selling automaker.
Government incentives in key markets have fueled demand for the German group's vehicles, limiting its sales decline even as the global market shrank by more than a fifth.
VW's first-quarter group sales of 1.39 million vehicles - excluding truckmaker Scania but including VW trucks and buses for two months - gave it a global market share of 11%, up from 9.7% a year earlier, it said in a statement.
Toyota has given no forecast for retail sales, but its latest estimate for shipments for the 2009 first quarter is 1.23 million vehicles, down 47% from a year earlier.
Read about VW's surge.
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