Europe’s strongest brand is showing the negative effects of the ongoing Eurozone crisis in July as year-to-date Volkswagen sales in Germany rose to 361,400, only a 2.5% increase year-over-year. In the rest of Western Europe sales dropped 5% from the comparable prior-year period. Results were better elsewhere as the VW brand posted an an overall increase of 11.9% to 468,300 (July 2011: 418,600).
The sales trend in Central and Eastern Europe was strong with a 40% rise to 157,100 ytd (111,900). Deliveries in Russia at 95,600 (56,500; +69%) units were also notable. In the Asia-Pacific region, VW deliveries rose 15.1% in the period to July at 1.27 (1.10) million units. Of that total 1.14 (0.99; +15.2%) million vehicles were delivered in China, the region’s – and the worlds’ – largest single market, during the same period.
Volkswagen car sales in the North America grew 23.4% to 346,700 (280,900) vehicles ytd. At 245,700 (183,200; +34%), the number of vehicles delivered to customers in the United States, the region’s largest single market, was also noticeably higher than the comparable prior-year period. In the South America region, deliveries rose by 6.4% to 472,700 (444,100) units.
“The Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand has grown global deliveries further despite the continued difficult market situation, above all in Western Europe”, Christian Klingler, Board Member for Sales and Marketing for the Volkswagen Group and the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand, said in Wolfsburg