The Avanti Group the equities research house based in Tokyo, providing professional trading and investment research solutions to institutional and private investors across the globe have recently drawn their investor’s attention to the German car maker Volkswagen AG as they expect to see deliveries for the Chinese market rise at least 10% from the 3.5 million car record that it set last year according to remarks made by the automaker’s CEO Martin Winterkorn ahead of the opening of the Beijing auto show.

2013 saw the German company outperform the Detroit based General Motors Co in terms of Chinese sales by 110’000 units. With a dozen well known car marquees under its ownership the Wolfsburg based VW plans to further increase its number of its car dealerships in China to over 3,600 in the next four years, a 50% increase over current numbers. At the same time VW in response to rising demand in China is set to introduce a range of low to zero emission models by debuting their e-Up and e-Golf this year, to be followed by models including the more expensive and up market Audi A3 E-Tron a mains charged hybrid vehicle.

“The Chinese auto market has become a defining force over the last decade or so and this is being reflected in the focus that the world’s largest auto manufacturers are placing on their sales performances in the country. VW has spent massively locating and expanding production and dealerships in China and this culminated in them knocking GM of the top spot last year, a place they had held for 8 years previously,” said a Senior Analyst and Researcher at The Avanti Group.

The competition however is far from one sided with GM intending to release over 60 new and updated models for Chinese consumers by late 2018, with the largest of the big three U.S based auto manufacturers spending some $12 billion in the country from this year through 2017 as it increases its product line up and manufacturing capacity. In 2014 so far VW is trailing GM in first quarter sales, with the Detroit based automaker increasing deliveries 13% to 919,114 units, against VW’s 880,700 units.

“There is most certainly a sense of deep competition between these two auto makers in regards to China, but they are also competing with some very serious rivals in the form of both Ford and Toyota, any gains made by these companies have to be eroding those of the big two players and so there is no guarantees as to which will come out ahead at the end of the year,” concluded the Senior Analyst and Researcher at The Avanti Group.

The Avanti Group is an equity research house providing research and analysis outsourcing solutions for institutional financial traders worldwide, founded in early 2003.