Volkswagen passenger car sales worldwide fell 14.1% year on year in January to 246,700 while group sales were off 21.3% to 382,000, the automaker said on  Wednesday (11 February).


“As expected, deliveries by the world’s third largest automaker were below the record levels of the same month in 2008 as a consequence of the global economic and financial crisis, but the group and its core brand nevertheless performed noticeably better than global competition (-24.1%), VW said in a statement.


“In January, global deliveries by the group and the Volkswagen core brand again developed better than was the case for our competitors. Moreover, we were able to extend our market share further in key markets,” sales and marketing head Detlef Wittig said.


He added that sharply contracting overall markets during the first month of this year nevertheless showed that no improvement in the global economic crisis was in sight at the moment.


“Our long-term growth targets remain valid despite the difficult overall conditions,” Wittig said, adding the group was well placed to achieve these targets given its widely varied young model range, innovative environmental technologies plus numerous new model launches in 2009.

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