Volkswagen’s VW Passenger Cars brand delivered 4.03m vehicles worldwide this year to the end of August, an increase of 3.4%. August sales, though, inched up just 0.1% to 471,000.

“We are still feeling the effects of the very challenging situation on world markets. However, we also continue to benefit from the tailwind in China and western Europe,”said sales and marketing head Christian Klingler.

European YTD volume was up 2.9% to 1.11m vehicles  with western Europe outside Germany up 4.9% to 561,500 and the home market up the same percentage to 382,100. Central and eastern Europe sales fell 7.3% to 163,300 with Russia – where the sales target has just been cut and the Kaluga plant temporaily shuttered – off 18% to 85,000.

Red ink prevailed in the Americas sales charts too with North American deliveries down 7.9% to 387,600 (down 13.4% to 244,900 in the US) and South American sales off a heart-stopping 20.8% to 427,400 with Brazil – also home to VW-making – down 15.6% to 347,000.

In contrast, Asia-Pacific YTD sales rose 15.4% to 1.97m with China (local manufacturing JVs) up 17.1% to 1.83m.

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