this story originally appeared in on apr 15 2018the global automotive industry was in for a surprise in 2017 led by carlos ghosn the frenchjapanese alliance of renaultnissanmitsubishi rnm grabbed the top spot from being ranked fourth in 2016 sales chart it had sold 106 million passenger vehicles passenger cars and lcvs in 2017 the recent past had seen toyota motors and volkswagen group dominating the chart rnm sold 10 million vehicles for the first time in 2017 on the back of a big boost from china it became the only carmaker besides volkswagen vw and toyota to do so this evolution reflects the breadth and depth of our model range our global market presence and the customer appeal of our vehicle technologies ghosn had said in a statement fasten your seatbelts this was a dramatic upset by any yardstick in the deeppocketed automobile industry pecking order matters and rankings are zealously guarded but the missing vroom factor in rnms ascent is part of a larger story that is unfolding in the car industry the industry hitherto fired up by petrol and diesel has been witnessing some tectonic shifts pole positions have changed between 2000 and 2017 see the road rulers detroit giants ford motors and general motors leading the chart in 2000 have been slowing down for a while daimler chrysler has dropped off the chart chrysler is now fiat chrysler many undercurrents also fuelled these shifts between 2000 and 2017 the rise of china the shift of centre of gravity from the west to the east a sharp surge in mergers and acquisitions in an industry seeking scale and cost efficiencies are just some of these the top deck has dramatically changed in the last 17 years says aswin kumar p program manager south asia middle east frost sullivan erstwhile leaders like vw and toyota have faced their share of troubles recently helping rnms rise vw has been reeling under the blow from a scandal involving fixing diesel emission results its ceo was replaced a couple of days ago the hybrid focused toyota with a weak presence in china is weighing its future where electric vehicles evs will dominate hot on the heels of the major companies have been the aggressive korean player hyundaikia whose rise to the top five though has been in the works for a while this is just a trailer say industry analysts the automotive industry which grew on the back of internal combustion engine is priming for bigger disruptions the past has been about making cars smarter more fuel efficient and feature rich chasing mostly incremental shifts the next 10 years will see more dramatic turns says kumar aces autonomous connected cars electrification and shared mobility is the big trend reshaping the market with the rising popularity of ride hailing apps such as uber and ola shared mobility is making car ownership passe technology giants like google and apple are knocking at the doors of auto majors as cars