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85.6 million cars sold worldwide in 2014, but who accounted for how much of that.
I'm Brian Cooley with the answers.
The top five global auto makers.
That's different and I think more interesting than the top five auto makes g/word.
Let's get started.
Number five, the Hyundai-Kia Group, 8 million sold up a hardy 7%.
Now, Hyundai-Kia's been a huge growth story for several years, taking its solid place as a member of the big five.
Their portfolio of car brands is perhaps the simplest on today's list.
Basically Hyundai and Kia, but they are part of perhaps the most diversified family conglomerate in our list.
That includes, steel, shipping, machine tools, finance, aerospace, and their original industry, construction.
Number four, Renault Nissan, 8.5 million, up 2.5%.
These two formed a tight partnership back in 1999.
Under it are, Nissan, Renault Infiniti, Dacia, Lada, an important stake in Auto Vas in Russia and a partnership with Daimler that will soon produce the first Mercedes Pickup Truck.
Nope, not coming to the U.S. Here Mercedes is seen as a luxury brand.
Never as a taxi or a truck.
Now we enter the tight race between the global big 3. Number 3, General Motors.
9. 9.9 million, up 2%.
GM was number one for over 75 years.
But it's the only carmaker now to have slid a spot in this list.
From number two in 2013, to its current number three.
Now not because its sales dropped.
But because number two grew even faster.
GM is huge beyond its american brands in Chevy and Cadillac for example.
They've got Holden in Australia, Opel and Vauxhall in Europe.
Ten different car-making operations in China, which is also where Buick does most of its sales.
Number two, the Volkswagen Group.
10.14 million, up 4% last year.
And crossing the Ten million line for the first time in company history.
They've been talking about soon being the world's biggest automaker.
Now if the VW group succeeds, it would do so with the wildest portfolio in the entire Big Five.
VW, Audi, Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, Seat, Skoda, Scania Trucks, Ducati Bikes, A big slice of Suzuki and two joint ventures in China.
Its ownership is also rather interesting.
Largely split between Porsche and the government of Lower Saxony.
Don't ask.
Before I get you to number one, where are all these cars made?
According to numbers from the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, China makes the biggest slice of the world's 85 million cars, followed by the US, Japan, Germany, and South Korea.
Oh, by the way, take out commercial vehicles, and the US drops from number two to number four.
The biggest car maker in the world is Toyota., 10.23 million, up 2.5%.
Tight race at the top as you can see.
But Toyota has nudged out BW so far for number one.
Using its namesake brands along with Lexus, Scion, Hino trucks, R amZB in China, majority control of the Daihatsu, who's got a stake in Fuji Heavy Industries that's Suburu aswell as a piece of Isuzu The interesting story to watch at the top of 2016 is will Toyota drop to number two and VW go to the top spot for the first time.
So far, mid year Volkswagen's ahead by 82,000 cars.
More top five lists to wake the car lover.
Go to CNETonCars.com and click on top five.
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