After stabilizing slightly in September, theVolkswagen-Group falling sales again. The deliveries of the world’s largest automaker decreased in October by 4.9 percent compared to the same month last year. As Volkswagen announced on Friday, a total of 903,200 vehicles were brought to customers. Previously, the business burdened by the Corona crisis had initially caught up a bit in September when the VW Group meanwhile sold 3.3 percent more cars.
Due to the sales crisis, there is a lack of income to finance the targeted investments in electric drives and car software. The board of directors decided on Friday anywayto keep the investment budget constant at 150 billion euros for the next five years. Within this sum, however, there will be substantial reallocation. The push in electrification and, above all, digitalization will be significantly strengthened, which in turn means sharp cuts in the traditional combustion engine business.
Also the particularly important market China weakens again, here the group got rid of 3.3 percent fewer vehicles in October. The Volkswagen Group now sells around 43 percent of its cars in the Middle Kingdom, as recently shown by data for the third quarter.
In North America the decrease was 9.8 percent, in the home region Western Europe it was 6.4 percent. The Asia-Pacific region excluding China and Hong Kong, on the other hand, developed more solidly with a plus of 3.3 percent. Since the beginning of the year, group sales are 17.3 percent below the level of the previous year, in the Western European markets more than a quarter.
Under the individual brands could Audi to continue its upward trend, the Ingolstadt-based company delivered 9.8 percent more cars than in October 2019. But for the year as a whole, things looked rather bleak here too (minus 10.3 percent). Apart from the luxury offshoots Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini, all other brands slipped in the past month – for example, the core brand Volkswagen Passenger Cars by 7.4, Porsche by 8.8 and Seat by 11.4 percent. The light commercial vehicles delivered over a tenth fewer copies than a year ago.