The Volkswagen car brand boosted first half sales 4.4% to 2.91m vehicles worldwide in the first half of 2013. June volume inched up 0.5% to 501,000.
“The tense situation on European markets was already obvious during the first six months,” VW said in a statement reporting sales down 7.1% to 843,600 with 427,800 of those (-7.9%) in western Europe bar Germany.
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German sales fell 8.5% to 283,400 while Russian sales dipped 4.7% to 77,300 cars.
Asia-Pacific sales rose 17.3% to 1.28m with Chinese volume up 19.4% to 1.17m. In contrast, Indian sales fell 12.6% to 31,800.
North American sales rose 3.9% to 307,000 but volume declined 7.5% to 361,600 in South America.
“Developments at Volkswagen Passenger Cars in the first six months were stable thanks to the brand’s convincing model range. The new Golf in particular has met with an excellent response from our customers. So far, we have already delivered well over 250,000 new Golf to customers worldwide. And the new Golf Variant [wagon] will generate further momentum”, said sales and marketing head Christian Klingler.
But he added: “[But] the challenges on difficult global markets, especially the considerable uncertainties in Europe, will undoubtedly continue to have a significant impact in the second half of the year.”
