Volkswagen Group on Thursday (14 March) said it had “successfully mastered the challenges posed by a difficult market environment in 2012” after announcing record vehicle sales, revenue and profits.

Sales rose 20.9% to EUR192.7bn but operating profit was up only slightly to what was nonetheless a record EUR11.5bn.

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Pre-tax profit rose EUR6.6bn to EUR25.5bn and after tax profit was EUR21.9bn, up from EUR15.8bn.

Dividend is expected to rise EUR3.50 from EUR3.00.

Group sales climbed 12.2% to 9.3m vehicles worldwide and its share of the global passenger car market rose to 12.8% from 12.3%.

Volkswagen cars accounted for 5.7m, an increase of 12.7%. But the operating profit slipped 4.1% to EUR3.6bn as modular transverse toolkit platform and Golf VII startup costs hit the books.

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Škoda’s sales increased 6.8% to 939,000 units while operating profit of EUR712m was down on 2011’s EUR743m “due to market factors”.

Seat sales fell 8.3% to 321,000 cars though the operating loss also fell by EUR69m to EUR156m.

Bentley sales surged 21.5% to 8,510 vehicles and operating profit soared from EUR8m to EUR100m.

Commercial Vehicles sales rose 4.1% to 550,000 but operating profit declined 6.1% to EUR421m.

The automaker expects higher sales in 2013 but cuationed “ongoing uncertainty in the economic environment” has pared back the goal for operating profit to match 2012’s result.

“Volkswagen is feeling the headwinds –especially in Europe. Nevertheless we remain guardedly confident,” said management board chairman Martin Winterkorn.