VW Group’s sales grow in the first four months of 2010

The sales of the Volkswagen Group have grown above the global market in the first quarter of 2010. The Group has registered sales of 2.34 million vehicles in the first four months of this year, which represent an increase of 20.9 percent. In the same period of 2009, the Volkswagen Group delivered 1.93 million units.

“The delivery situation in the first third of the year developed well. The strong upward trend continues on growth markets such as China and Brazil, where Volkswagen is particularly successful. In addition, the Volkswagen Group also made excellent progress on mature markets such as Western Europe and North America,” Group Board Member for Sales Christian Klingler said in Wolfsburg on Monday. “Despite the very positive performance to date, we remain cautious about our forecast for the full year. It is still very difficult to predict macroeconomic developments,” he added.

The results of the Volkswagen Group were positive in all key automotive markets. In China sales rose 53 percent, with 620,500 units delivered, compared to the 405,500 in the same period of 2009. China further consolidated its position as both the Group’s and the core brand Volkswagen’s largest market. Brazil saw the sales rise by 3.7 percent to 217,000 units and in India sales almost doubled, reaching 10,400 units (+96 percent).

With 112,600 customers choosing to by a car from the Volkswagen Group brands, the results of the company in the USA grew 37.7 percent. As for the overall European market, 1.13 million vehicles were delivered in the first four months of 2010, which represents a growth of 9.5 percent. In Western Europe, deliveries grew 11.9 percent to 1.01 million vehicles.

Individually, all the brands that compose the Volkswagen Groups registered growths in sales when compared to the first four months of 2009. Volkswagen had a strong increase of 22.6 percent, selling 1.49 million vehicles, with the Golf being by far the most popular model, with worldwide deliveries of almost 223,000 units.

As for Audi, the brand continued its recent growth in sales delivering 360,800 units, more 23.7 percent than in the same period of 2009. The new Audi A5 Sportback and A5 Cabriolet as well as the Q5 were among the most popular models.

Škoda also saw its sales grow to 242,100 units, rising 18.6 percent. Enjoying very strong growth in China, selling 54,800 (28,500; +92.6 percent), the Czech brand’s most popular model was the Fabia.

Finally, between January and April Seat delivered 117,400 units worldwide, which represented a growth of 10.7 percent when compared to 2009. The Exeo Sport Tourer and Exeo enjoyed the highest growth rates.