In February, the Volkswagen Group handed 724,400 vehicles over to customers throughout the world, corresponding to a fall of 1.8 percent compared with February 2018. Volkswagen developed better than the overall world market, which continues to shrink, and the Group once again won market shares. This was the case in the regions of Western Europe, South America and Asia-Pacific. In the largest single market of China, deliveries fell significantly compared with the previous year (-7.4 percent), but the Group still performed better than the overall market, which remained weak. Dr. Christian Dahlheim, Head of Volkswagen Group Sales: “In February, the Volkswagen Group delivered slightly fewer vehicles than last year, but we were able to gain market shares in a shrinking overall market. Despite the market environment, which continues to be challenging as expected, we have therefore continued our solid start to the new year. With our broad-based product offensive, we are confident that we will once again record a slight increase in deliveries this year”. In 2019, the brands of the Volkswagen Group will launch over 90 new models.
Deliveries in the regions in February developed as follows:
In Europe, the brands of the Volkswagen Group delivered a total of 334,400 vehicles in February 2019, 1.1 percent up on the same month last year. In Central and Eastern Europe, deliveries fell slightly by 1.5 percent to 61,100 vehicles. In Western Europe, the Group handed 273,300 vehicles over to customers, recording growth of 1.7 percent. In the home market of Germany, Group brands also recorded growth (+3.6 percent) with 105,500 vehicles delivered.
In North America, deliveries fell by 5.8 percent to 65,200 vehicles. In the USA , the Group recorded 44,400 deliveries, a drop of 5.1 percent compared with the same month of the previous year. In Mexico, the overall economic situation remained tense but the fall in deliveries, at 6.7 percent, was lower than in the preceding months. 14,500 vehicles were delivered.
In South America, the Volkswagen Group handed a total of 40,400 vehicles over to customers, recording strong growth of 34.3 percent compared with February 2018. This positive development was driven by Brazil, with 29,400 vehicles delivered (+115.9 percent). In addition to the very good performance of the Group brands, this development was due to the changeover to a new internal reporting method for South America. The significant decline in deliveries in Argentina was more than compensated for. In an overall market which continues to shrink, 6,300 vehicles were delivered (-46.4 percent) in the country.
In the Asia-Pacific region, the Volkswagen Group delivered 257,100 vehicles, corresponding to a fall of 7.3 percent compared with February 2018. In the most important single market, China, the Group was unable to avoid the general shrinkage in the market but still gained market shares. 234,400 customers in China took delivery of a new vehicle from a Group brand, some 7.4 percent fewer than in February 2018.