Today I was looking at the news about the automotive industry, and I thought to take a look at the global sales by manufacturer in the world in 2009 .
To my surprise, you can’t find this data anywhere on the internet, except in some very expensive market studies.
So I decided to compile these data, from various sources on the internet(usually the companies sites coroborated with the news).
Here you got some partial results. Keep in mind that these are Sales data (not production).

Worldwide car sales 2009
This list in not complete, but maybe I will take the time to do a search dor the others manufacturers. Your input is welcomed.
I took the liberty to include in this incomplete chart Dacia, a small manufacturer from Romania
(As this manufacturer is included in Renault, his results are counted also in Renault data).
What we can see is that the car industry has taken a nosedive in US (altough December data indicate some fast recovery). GM is in preety big trouble , losing 2 places in 2 consecutive years. VW is going very well, helped by the strong grouth in Ghina and by the incentives offered by the governments in EU countries.
For reference I just added some production statistics for 2008 taken from OICA.net (International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers).

World ranking of manufacturers 2009
I would like also to reply to an article which says that China becomed the first market for autovehicles in 2009 with 13.6 million total vehicle sales(10.3million cars), against 10.4 million for US .
A lot of people forget the EU(Eropean Union) in their statistics (neither when counting the medals in the Olympics). As reported by the association of European automakers, in 2009 the car sales in EU were 14.12 million. So, for the moment this is the biggest market. Well, it might be very true that next year China will be the biggest market, as the governements in Europe think about cutting their incentives.
The top car manufacturing groups in Europe (EU plus EFTA) in 2009 according to the ACEA were:
| Manufacturing Group |
No of Cars Sold in 2009 |
Market Share |
Change from 2008 |
| VW |
3,062,774 |
21.1 |
+0.7 |
| PSA |
1,865,263 |
12.9 |
-0.0 |
| Ford |
1,486,338 |
10.3 |
+2.0 |
| Renault |
1,335,766 |
9.2 |
+3.9 |
| GM |
1,284,283 |
8.9 |
-8.7 |
| Fiat |
1,254,829 |
8.7 |
+6.3 |
| Toyota |
730,831 |
5.0 |
-4.7 |
| BMW |
708,109 |
4.9 |
-13.6 |
| Daimler |
689,177 |
4.8 |
-13.0 |
| Nissan |
366,711 |
2.5 |
+9.0 |
Well, this is all for the moment. I wait for your input. Students feel free to use this summary, and if you use this data it might be nice to mention its origins.
Update. I found and update the results for Ford in 2009.