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VW sales boost bucks trend

Bucking the general atmosphere of doom and gloom in the world car industry Volkswagen has grown its market share globally in the first quarter of this year.


From January to March, the German company’s global share rose to 11.0 per cent, up from 9.7 per cent.

At the same time VW passenger cars brand also bucked the negative economic trend, growing its world market share to 7.4 per cent, from 6.3 per cent.

The growth for Audi and Škoda was much more slight with each reporting a 0.1 per cent increase in market share, while SEAT’s share remained stable.

“Our young and efficient model range with some 180 different vehicles is paying off. Our portfolio contains exactly the cars which are in demand with customers,” Detlef Wittig, Executive Vice President, Group Sales and Marketing, commented in Wolfsburg.

In an overall market that has shrunk by more than 20 per cent, VW Group delivered 1.39 million vehicles to customers worldwide. During this period, the Volkswagen brand sold 876,000 units.

Europe’s largest carmaker outperformed competitors in most key sales regions, and in Western Europe, the Group grew market share from 18.6 to 20.6 percent.

Its market share in Central and Eastern Europe grew to 12.9 per cent, while in Russia; in a market that is down 39 per cent, the Group grew deliveries significantly to some 25,800 units, an increase of 14.1 per cent, and now ranks fourth on the Russian market.

The Asia/Pacific region, which includes Australia, did not fare so well but while there was a noticeable 8.7 per cent drop in the market, the Volkswagen Group reported a rise in deliveries to 318,200 vehicles, an increase of 2.9 per cent. In China, deliveries rose to 284,200 units, an increase of 6.0 per cent.

“During this year we will be debuting around 60 new models, product enhancements and successors with highly-efficient, low-consumption engines, Mr Wittig said.

“With this model rollout, we are very confident that we can, as planned, perform significantly better than the competition in 2009,” he commented.

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