The Volkswagen-Group has experienced tough competition in the past year China fewer vehicles sold than in the previous year. The group delivered 9.03 million vehicles of all group brands to customers worldwide, which was 2.3 percent less than in the previous year, as the Wolfsburg-based company announced on Tuesday. The self-imposed target of nine million deliveries was almost reached. VW sales boss Marco Schubert spoke of a solid performance and referred to the tough competition and numerous model changes.
In China, sales fell almost 10 percent. In Western Europe, however, sales remained almost stable at minus 0.4 percent. The group was able to grow in North America (plus 6 percent) and South America (plus 15 percent).
However, there was a decline in electric cars. Almost 745,000 electric models from all Group brands were delivered worldwide last year, 3.4 percent less than the year before. Especially in the USA and fewer electric vehicles were sold in Europe. At least incoming orders in Western Europe are increasing again, it was said, driven, among other things, by new models such as the VW ID.7 Audi Q6 e-tron and the Porsche Macan.
Especially that weak performance from Audi burdened. The Ingolstadt VW subsidiary had already reported a 12 percent drop in sales at the beginning of the week. The core brand Volkswagen Passenger Cars, which accounts for more than half of all sales, fell by 1.4 percent, and the sports car manufacturer Porsche AG fell by 3 percent. In contrast, Seat/Cupra (plus 7.5 percent) and Škoda (6.9 percent) reported growth. However, this could not compensate for the declines in the other brands.
For the brands of the commercial vehicle holding Traton (MAN, Scania, International, VW Truck & Bus), sales fell by 1.2 percent to 334,200 vehicles over the year.