Volkswagen AG said sales rose more than twice as fast as the worldwide auto market last month as demand for VW and Audi models in the U.S. and China aided its bid to overtake Toyota Motor Corp. as the largest carmaker, Bloomberg reported.

Deliveries by the VW group, which also includes the Skoda, Seat and Lamborghini brands, increased 9.8 percent from a year earlier to a record 612,200 cars, sport-utility vehicles and commercial vans in October, outpacing the industry’s 4.5 percent sales gain, Wolfsburg, Germany-based Volkswagen said today in a statement.

Volkswagen is targeting a second consecutive year of record deliveries as it adds about 70 models, including upgraded versions of existing vehicles. Christian Klingler, Volkswagen’s sales chief, said on Sept. 30 that VW may achieve its goal of selling 10 million vehicles a year before the target date of 2018. Volkswagen said today that 10-month deliveries climbed 12 percent to 5.98 million vehicles.

“We are continuing to gain global market share,” Klingler said in today’s statement. “We expect this trend to continue over the coming months as we systematically progress with our model initiative.”

Volkswagen’s preferred shares rose as much as 1.35 euros, or 1.2 percent, to 111.95 euros and traded at 111.90 euros as of 12:32 p.m. in Frankfurt. The stock has climbed 71 percent this year, valuing the company at 48.4 billion euros ($66 billion).

China Factories

The carmaker’s expansion targets rely on success in China, where VW is adding two factories to double production in its biggest market to 3 million cars within four years. VW plans to invest 6 billion euros ($8.2 billion) in China for the construction and to develop new models. Ten-month sales in the country rose 38 percent to 1.65 million vehicles.

Volkswagen, which will resume production in the U.S. with a factory being built in Chattanooga, Tennessee, increased 10- month sales in that market by 21 percent to 295,900.

The namesake VW brand raised deliveries by 12 percent to 3.78 million cars and SUVs in the 10 months through October. Audi sales rose 16 percent to 916,900. Skoda deliveries advanced 5.5 percent to 69,200, while Seat sales were unchanged at 285,200 vehicles. The commercial-van division’s deliveries increased 17 percent to 349,000, led by South American growth.

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