Nissan-Renault is Now the Bestselling Car Maker in the World

Move over Volkswagen and Toyota, Nissan-Renault  is now number one in terms of worldwide sales -- for the first half of the year, that is.

Just this half-time alone, Nissan has produced 5,268,079 vehicles, exceeding Volkswagen's 5,155,600 and Toyota's  5,129,000. So for the first six months of 2017, the official ranking is as follows:

We weren't surprised by this. Ever since Nissan Renault joined forces with Mitsubishi, we knew it was just a matter of time before they'll take over Volkswagen, to say the least.

Company boss Carlos Ghosn has been very confident that they would be the world's biggest car manufacturer over the past few months.

"We have been among the top three car makers since January in sales volume, and we expect to be in the top spot by midyear, although this was not our goal," he said during their annual meeting last June.

Still, it doesn't hold a lot of weight for the company, despite the huge achievement.

Joji Tagawa, Nissan’s Investor Relations Boss, said to journalists:

“That’s not an important indicator”, Tagawa said. He added that  they "don't really care whether we were number one, number two, or number three. How can we leverage size is important.”

Perhaps, the reason is because it isn't as clear-cut as we would like to believe. Despite the alliance, Nissan and Renault have individual shareholders despite using each other's technology and resources. This is unlike Volkswagen  and Toyota, who each are under a single board and set of shareholders.

Despite this, no one can deny that Nissan-Renault has gained a huge plus by adding Mitsubishi in their line-up last year. Presently, the company has a 34% stake in Mitsubishi.

Company head Ghosn has high hopes for the future, and plans to “continue to leverage our significant economies of scale and global market presence to deliver valuable synergies for our member companies this year, while maintaining a strong technology lineup and offering customers breakthrough electric models.”

The Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi alliance's biggest sales come from electric vehicles (481,151), which is considered the highest in the world today. Renault Zoe and Nissan Leaf also are two of the top-selling battery electric cars in Europe. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Outlander is its bestselling plug-in hybrid to date.