Volkswagen Group began the new year with a sizable 6.5% rise in deliveries, handing over 798,100 vehicles to customers worldwide in the first month of 2014.
Positive momentum continued on the overall European market, where Group brands grew deliveries by 8.5% to 273,700 vehicles in the first month of the year, of which 146,700 units were handed over in Western Europe. There was a sizable increase for the Group in the home market of Germany, where 82,400 customers chose a new vehicle from the Group. The company delivered a total of 44,500 vehicles in the Central and Eastern Europe region during the same period, of which 16,100 were handed over in Russia.
In the Asia-Pacific region, the Group continued to record very encouraging figures where 374,400 vehicles were delivered in the first month of this year, of which 344,400 were customers in China – this is also the first time that deliveries on this market have exceeded the 300,000 mark in January. In contrast, deliveries in India declined to 5,700 (7,800; -27.4 percent) vehicles.
The Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand recorded a sizable increase in worldwide deliveries in January, handing over 515,700 vehicles to customers. The brand developed well in the Asia-Pacific region, where 285,300 units was sold, an increase of 13.7%.
Audi delivered 124,900 vehicles worldwide in January, a rise of 11.7 percent. The premium brand from Ingolstadt benefited among other things from growth in China, where 44,500 vehicles were delivered, and in Germany, where 17,400 customers took possession of a new vehicle.
Meanwhile, the sports car manufacturer Porsche delivered a total of 12,200 vehicles in the first month of the year. Demand for vehicles built by the Stuttgart-based carmaker was particularly high in China, where 4,000 units were delivered, an increase of 29.2%.
“The Volkswagen Group has made a good start to the new year. Even though last January’s delivery figures reflected the special effect brought about by the Chinese New Year, we still grew deliveries further in the first month of this year. And we are seeing the first increases in Europe, above all in Western Europe, where the downturn appears to have bottomed out”, Group Board Member for Sales Christian Klingler said in Wolfsburg recently.
