Volkswagen Global Vehicle Sales Return to Growth
February 12 2016 - 11:00AM
Dow Jones News
BERLIN—Global sales of Volkswagen AG vehicles returned to growth
in January on the back of resurgent sales in China, even as the
company's namesake brand declined in all other markets.
Volkswagen sold a total of 847,800 cars, trucks and motorcycles
in January, a rise of 3.7% from a year earlier, from its stable of
brands that include Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Skoda, SEAT, and
truck makers MAN and Scania.
January's sales report shows that Volkswagen's strong position
in China, and the continued strength of its premium brands Porsche
and Audi are helping it cope with the erosion of its namesake brand
in hard-hit emerging markets and the impact of its
emissions-cheating scandal on sales in the U.S. and Europe.
"Developments on world markets at the beginning of the year are
mixed," Chief Executive Matthias Mü ller said in a statement. "The
situation in Brazil and Russia remains tense, China is regaining
momentum and the trend in Europe is generally stable."
Sales grew strongest in China, rising 14%, while sales in Russia
and Brazil, struggling with declining economies and volatile
currencies, fell 30% and 32% respectively. Volkswagen's sales in
the U.S. declined 7% and rose about 3% in Western Europe.
The moderate growth in January sales comes after Volkswagen
sales declined in 2015 in the wake of slowing demand in China and
the impact of the emissions-cheating scandal on sales in the last
three months of the year.
Hardest-hit by the emissions crisis is Volkswagen's namesake
brand—Volkswagen Passenger Cars—by far its biggest business by
sales.
Volkswagen brand sales rose 2.8% to 521,400 vehicles in January,
but all of the growth came from Asia, especially China. Volkswagen
brand sales declined in every other market in the world.
In the big five European markets—Germany, the U.K., Italy,
France and Spain—remained the best-selling brand in January,
according to JATO Dynamics, an automotive research group.
But Volkswagen brand sales fell 4.1% in these core European
markets last month, even as the industry overall grew nearly 7%. As
a result, the Volkswagen brand's core European market share fell to
11.7% in January from 13% a year earlier.
"The German brand was the only one in the top 10 to post
negative growth," JATO Dynamics said in a statement.
Write to William Boston at william.boston@wsj.com and Monica
Houston-Waesch at nikki.houston@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 12, 2016 10:45 ET (15:45 GMT)
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