in theVW group has the sales slump caused by the Corona crisis somewhat weakened in June. As the company announced on Friday, worldwide deliveries decreased by 17.5 percent year-on-year to around 804,000 vehicles. This corresponds to a stabilization compared to May, when the minus was still around a third (33.7 percent). For the entire first half of the year, sales decreased by 27.4 percent to almost 3,900,000 vehicles in sales statistics. If you only look at the second quarter of 2020, the losses are 31.6 percent.
In June, Seat (minus 40.5 percent) and the truck manufacturer Scania (minus 41.3 percent) again suffered significant losses in deliveries among the individual VW Group brands. The VW core brand improved from a decline of 29.7 percent in May to a minus of 17.6 percent recently. At Skoda, sales decreased by 16.0 percent, at Audi by 8.1 percent. Porsche was hardly affected with minus 1.8 percent, MAN with minus 33.3 percent and the light VW commercial vehicles with minus 26.2 percent all the more so.
While the business of Volkswagen In China, which continued to recover in June (minus 3.9 percent) and for the rest of the Asia-Pacific region, there was even a slight increase (+0.2), sales declines remained mainly in the home market of Western Europe (minus 29.9). as well as in South America (minus 27.0) and North America (minus 22.8). However, the values were no longer as dramatic as in the previous month.
VW’s China boss is optimistic about the second half of the year
Overall, Volkswagen is confident about its most important sales market China. “All of our brands are doing quite well,” said Stephan Wöllenstein, head of VW in China, on Friday to journalists in Beijing. He assumes that the VW Group will perform similarly in the second half of the year as in the second half of 2019.
The market plummeted in the first three months of the year due to coronavirus restrictions. In the meantime, there is a “V-shaped” recovery, said Wöllenstein. After sales in the first quarter had sunk by 35 percent compared to the same period in the previous year, the minus at the end of the first half of the year was still 17 percent. This shows that a lot of business could be caught up, said Wöllenstein.
Despite the considerable recovery, Wöllenstein says it will not be possible to make up for any losses by the end of the year. One would expect a minus in sales in the single-digit range for the entire year. However, Volkswagen will likely gain market share because the overall market in China is developing weaker than VW.
In the business with luxury class vehicles, a slight plus is even possible. The entry-level brand Jetta, designed for the Chinese market, is also developing positively. Since the launch last autumn, the three Jetta models have already gained a market share of almost one percent.
According to Wöllenstein, the strong recovery in China is currently helping to support the VW Group internationally. However, there are still uncertainties in the People’s Republic. It cannot be ruled out that a new corona wave will also occur in China in autumn or winter when the weather cools down again.