VW sees sales grow nearly 6%

Volkswagen Group delivered 2.4 million (January-March 2013: 2.27 million; +5.8 per cent) vehicles from January to March.

Deliveries in the month of March ran at 929,500 (March 2013: 864,100; +7.6 per cent)* units.

Group brands delivered 958,600 vehicles (881,600; a rise of 8.7 per cent) in the overall European market in the first quarter, of which 516,600 (477,400; +8.2 per cent) were sold in Western Europe (excluding Germany).

In Germany, sales rose 7.9 per cent to 282,800 (262,100). Europe's largest automaker delivered 159,200 (142,100; +12.0 per cent) vehicles in the Central and Eastern Europe region. However, in Russia, sales dropped two per cent to 65,900 (67,300).

In North America too sales dropped, this time by four per cent to 197,300 (205,700). Of these 133,500, a drop of 6.5 per cent, (142,800; -6.5 per cent) were sold in the United States.

In South America, the Group saw sales drop a massive 23.1 per cent to 168,600 (219,200) in the same period, of which 127,700 (160,600; -20.5 per cent) vehicles were delivered in Brazil.

In the Asia-Pacific region, sales rose 13.7 per cent to 978,700 (860,700), of which 880,700 (769,200; +14.5 per cent) units were sold in China, the Group's largest single market where VW has just unveiled the new Golf 400R Concept which has a 400PS engine. The power of this engine has been raised from 300PS to 400PS. There are no plans as yet to put this into production, but with VW anything is possible. 

The Golf 400R develops 450Nm torque, 70Nm ore than the standard  300PS engine. The engine, based o the EA888 engine has a newly developed turbocharger with a higher maximum charge pressure. The engine has a "reinforced crankcase" and a water-cooled exhaust gas feed to the turbocharger integrated into the cylinder head.

In contrast, deliveries of Volkswagen vehicles in India plummeted to 30 per cent 18,100 (25,900).

All brands but one experienced sales increases: Volkswagen 3.9 per cent; Audi 11.7 per cent; Porsche 4.5 per cent; Skoda 12.1 per cent and Seat 7.3 per cent. Only the commercial vehicle division experienced a sales drop – of 2.3 per cent.

This performance excludes MAN and Scania.                                           ∎