The price war China leaves at paragraph from Volkswagen-Group deep tracks. After a strong increase in May, deliveries in June in the Wolfsburg carmaker’s most important individual market fell by 14.5 percent, as Volkswagen announced on Friday. The decline was also so high because a particularly large number of vehicles were delivered in June last year, explained a spokesman. After the corona lockdowns, the Chinese government boosted car sales with tax breaks.
China was the only region with a drop in sales last month. Business for Volkswagen was best in Western Europe, where the group improved by more than 30 percent within a year. In North America, the increase in sales was lower at 5.7 percent, and deliveries stagnated in South America. The bottom line in June was an increase in sales of almost 6 percent to around 848,000 vehicles worldwide. In the middle of the year, sales climbed by 12.8 percent to around 4.4 million units thanks to strong previous months.
A price war is currently raging on the electric car market in China. As a result, the western car manufacturers, which dominated in the past, are coming under massive pressure. Now the first to grab offers
. representative of Mercedes recently reported, even the traditional Chinese state manufacturers BAIC and SAIC, joint venture partners of Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen, are struggling in the market, which is currently BYD be led.
VW significantly weaker than the group sisters
According to its own statements, Volkswagen is largely staying out of the discount battle, but is granting price reductions for a limited period of time. VW China boss Ralf Brandstätter (54), who is now supposed to turn things around
, recently spoke of an “unhealthy competitive environment” in China. Meanwhile, 16 manufacturers are trying – including Tesla – to avoid a ruinous price war at the instigation of the Chinese industry association CAAM.
Overall, the Wolfsburg core brand also performed significantly weaker than the group sisters: In June, deliveries of the brand worldwide were 2.4 percent below the previous year’s level, in the first half of the year they were still 7.2 percent up. Seat/Cupra (plus 28.1 percent), Skoda (plus 19.9 percent) and Audi (plus 15.5 percent).
In the three-way battle of the premium manufacturers with bmw and Mercedes-Benz, the Ingolstadt-based company was able to make up ground. The BMW brand grew by just 4.7 percent in the first half of the year, and Mercedes-Benz by 6 percent. With more than a million deliveries each, both were clearly ahead of the Ingolstadt company. Audi came to 907,000.
Overall, 7.4 percent of deliveries at the VW Group were for electric cars. “We see that electromobility is unfortunately not accepted in the way we all – including politicians – imagined,” said Daniela Cavallo (48), head of the works council, of the “Braunschweiger Zeitung” (Friday). The reason is the high acquisition costs, falling subsidies and high electricity prices.
In the meantime, however, the situation is improving again, said Audi Board Member Hildegard Wortmann (56), who also heads Group Sales, according to the announcement: “Since May we have seen an improved trend in incoming orders again, after at times longer at the beginning of the year due to reduced subsidy programs waiting times and high inflation, a certain reluctance was felt among our customers.” In view of the recently significantly reduced delivery times, she assumes that this trend will continue.