Europe's leading carmaker Volkswagen (VW) was crowned Tuesday as "the best performer for 2010" in automobile industry for the first time, according to a German auto institute study.

Germany's Center of Automotive Management (CAM) said the Volkswagen Group is labeled as the world's most powerful automotive manufacturers as its comprehensive assessments, including sales growth, financial status and innovation ability, have gained advantages over other opponents.

Other two German manufacturers, Daimler and BMW, also jumped quickly to the second and forth position respectively, while the Korean Hyundai Group stayed in the third.

Japan's Toyota, once the No. 1 in 2009, has descended sharply to the eighth due to several reputation-damaging car recalls and quality defects.

Summarizing the first half of 2011, the study said that although Japanese manufacturers have registered double-digit percentage decline of production as a result of earthquakes and nuclear disasters, the rest of the producers sill face positive sales trends in principle.

With a total of nine brands including Audi, SEAT and Lamborghini, the Wolfsburg-based Volkswagen Group posted record sales of 7.14 million vehicles in 2010 with an annual increase of 13.5 percent.