Martin Winterkorn, CEO of Volkswagen Group, hinted that there is a good chance for the group to reach production target of 10 million vehicles this year, four years ahead of schedule.

The company is accelerating model introductions in a strategy to overtake Toyota as the global sales leader.

“With rising volume and new models, we will increasingly see positive earnings effects as well,” he added during VW Group’s annual press conference in Berlin recently.

While no automaker has sold 10 million vehicles in a single year, there is a possibility that two will do so in 2014: VW and Toyota.

Volkswagen, which has budgeted $117 billion in investments through 2018 to pursue a goal of taking the top spot from Toyota, said it would introduce more than 100 models this year and next, including vehicles for the mass-market VW nameplate and the Audi and Porsche premium marques.

Toyota predicted in January it would breach the 10-million milestone this year with sales of 10.32 million in calendar year 2014.

That plan represents a four percent increase over the 9.98 million cars it sold in calendar year 2013.

Two encouraging signs for both companies are that Europe’s car market is pulling out of a six-year slump; and auto sales in China continue to rise, even as economic growth is set to slow.

At the same time, demand has been softening in emerging markets, such as Brazil, Russia and India, that carmakers have targeted for sales growth.

Volkswagen is also working to boost US sales of its main brand, which has lagged behind competitors’ growth in that market.