The strong Chinese business set a new sales record at Volkswagen last year.
The Volkswagen-Kernmarke VW In 2017, cars brought more cars to their customers than ever before. A total of 6.23 million cars were handed over worldwide with the VW emblem – 4.2 percent more than a year earlier, as the company announced on Sunday evening to the auto show in Detroit. And in the month of December, the brand around Golf, Passat and Tiguan also set a delivery record with 594,100 cars. Compared to the same month last year, the plus was 5.6 percent.
VW benefited above all from the strong business in China – 3.18 million cars were delivered there, 5.9 percent more than in 2016. A bitter pill, however: In Germany, where the diesel crisis had burdened sales in the past year, VW could indeed In December, the numbers increase in comparison with the same month last year by 8.4 percent to 42,000 cars. For the full year, however, there was a decline of 4.7 percent to 531,600 cars.
“In 2018, we will further accelerate our model offensive with impulses from new, important models such as Polo, T-Roc and Touareg,” said Brand Sales Director Jürgen Stackmann. In 2017, South American deliveries increased by 25 percent to a good 419,000 cars, while in Brazil there was an increase of 19.7 percent to 261,100 units.
Sales records in the Far East: VW makes China an export location
In the US, where the exhaust scandal of millions of rigged diesel engines blew up in September 2015, deliveries in December fell by 18.7 percent to around 30,300 cars. For the full year, the brand recorded an increase of 5.2 percent to nearly 340,000 deliveries – the first increase since 2013.
VW wants to publish its figures for the total sales in the group on 17 January. The “Bild” reported about a week ago that the company was probably the world’s largest carmaker in 2017. The company expects a total of 10.7 million vehicles sold, after 10.3 million in 2016.