Volkswagen The weak demand is increasingly being felt. After BMW and Mercedes Europe’s largest car manufacturer also reported significantly fewer sales in the third quarter. In the months from July to September, the group delivered 2.18 million vehicles of all group brands worldwide, 7.1 percent less than in the same period last year, as the Wolfsburg-based company announced.
This meant that the decline was once again significantly greater than in the already weak previous quarter, when it fell by 3.8 percent. Business is weakening, especially in Asia. “The competitive situation is particularly intense China, which is the main reason for the global decline in our shipments,” said Audi-Sales manager Marco Schubert according to the announcement
. He is also responsible for the department within the entire group.
In China, VW’s most important car market, deliveries fell by 15 percent, and in the other Asian countries by as much as 23.4 percent. In Western Europe it fell 7 percent. Here, too, there is a “clear headwind from the market,” said Schubert. Increases in America and Africa/Middle East couldn’t compensate for that.
Audi charged
Audi once again performed particularly poorly. Sales at the VW subsidiary fell by 16 percent. In the fight with BMW and Mercedes for first place among the premium manufacturers, Audi is far behind. Only 402,600 vehicles were delivered in the third quarter; the two competitors each delivered more than 500,000 despite declines. The core Volkswagen brand lost 6.6 percent. Only Skoda and Lamborghini and the truck subsidiary Traton increased.
Porsche fell seven percent. The weak Chinese business was also largely to blame there, where the Stuttgart-based company sold 29 percent fewer sports and off-road vehicles in the first nine months. However, the local sales manager, Detlev von Platen, was confident for the rest of the year: “With increasing product availability, we are optimistic about the final spurt for 2024.”
Electric cars are hardly in demand
There was another setback in sales Electric cars. In the third quarter, the group only delivered 189,400 electric models worldwide, 9.8 percent less than in the same period in 2023. In China, already weak electric car sales even fell by 15 percent, in Western Europe it fell by 7 percent down. However, the order backlog for electric cars in Western Europe remains unchanged at around 170,000 vehicles, it is said.
A new discount campaign is now intended to give electric cars a new boost. VW has reduced the price of the compact ID.3 electric car from October and is offering it at a promotional price of just under 30,000 euros until the end of the year. So far the starting price was almost 37,000 euros. For the first time since the end of the E-Up small car a year ago, there is an electric Volkswagen for less than 30,000 euros.
In the discussion about the new VW savings plans, works council boss Daniela Cavallo (49) repeatedly criticized the fact that the group does not have a cheap electric car in its range. The entry-level models ID.2 and ID.1 planned for 2026 would come too late. VW depends on a higher proportion of electric cars in order to achieve the EU’s stricter CO2 fleet target in 2025. Otherwise you risk high fines.
Sales target lowered
The group had at the end of September has already revised its sales forecast for the full year downwards. Instead of an increase in deliveries of up to 3 percent compared to the previous year’s figure of 9.2 million vehicles, the Wolfsburg-based company is now only expecting around 9 million sales.
Moody’s rates Volkswagen “negative”
The rating agency Moody’s assesses the prospects for the creditworthiness of Europe’s largest car manufacturer Volkswagen to be somewhat bleaker than before. The company confirmed the rating for the Volkswagen bonds on Friday, but has now classified the outlook as “negative” after previously “stable”. The background to this is weaker development at VW after the car market lost momentum in the past few months. VW has initiated countermeasures, but these are fraught with risks.