Volkswagen suffers sales setback in China

VW production in Shanghai

After the corona lockdowns, the Chinese government boosted car sales with tax breaks.

(Photo: Reuters)

Hamburg, Wolfsburg The price war in China is leaving deep scars on Volkswagen sales. After a strong increase in deliveries in May, sales in June in the group’s most important individual market fell by 14.5 percent, as Volkswagen announced on Friday.

The decline was also so strong because June was particularly strong a year ago, explained a spokesman. After the corona lockdowns, the Chinese government boosted car sales with tax breaks.

Due to strong growth in Europe, however, the Group’s deliveries worldwide rose by 5.7 percent to almost 848,000 vehicles in June. By the middle of the year, sales had climbed by 12.8 percent to around 4.4 million units thanks to the strong previous months.

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Compared to the previous month, however, growth weakened noticeably. In May, the increase was still 16 percent. Due to the supply bottlenecks, Volkswagen started the year with a significant backlog of orders, which, according to earlier information, is now being worked off.

The group was able to grow primarily in Western Europe. 1.64 million vehicles were sold here, almost 27 percent more than a year earlier. In June, the increase here was even more than 30 percent.

Seat/Cupra (plus 28.1 percent) and Skoda (plus 19.9 percent) made strong gains in the half-year. Audi increased its sales by 15.5 percent and Porsche by 14.7 percent. The Wolfsburg core brand Volkswagen, on the other hand, only increased by 7.2 percent. In June, the brand’s deliveries were even 2.4 percent below the previous year’s level.

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