It's A Miracle: Volkswagen Beats All Odds
It’s a new Wirtschaftswunder, a new economic miracle: While sales in Germany and Europe nosedive, Volkswagen can’t make cars fast enough, and produces record results. In June, German car sales were down 28.7 percent. The European market was down 6.9 percent. That should hurt Volkswagen, by far Europe’s largest carmaker big, shouldn’t it? It should, but it didn’t. In the first half of 2010, the Volkswagen Group delivered more vehicles than they hoped in their wildest dreams.
Volkswagen delivered 3.58m units to customers in the first six months of 2010. (January to June 2009: 3.10m). That’s an increase of 16 percent. How did they perform this economic miracle? You probably know the answer already.
The largest market of Volkswagen is now officially China. Volkswagen posted a 45.7 percent rise in deliveries in China in the first six months, selling nearly a million cars (950,300 to be exact) in the Middle Kingdom. Even in the U.S.A., VeeDub’s chronical weak spot, Volkswagen grew 29.2 percent in the first six months, from 135,800 in 2009 to 175,300 in January to June 2010. That made up for Europe, where Volkswagen grew 4.7 percent. So far the Volkswagen press release.
They left out the best part: Because of the low Euro , the high sales abroad will have a very positive effect to their bottom line.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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VW Press Release link doesn't seem to work for me. It looks like you need to have a journalist's special login.
Click on "English" on the left margin and the press release will come up.
Didn't know VW made the Fox in Germany. Are those not imports from VW do Brasil?
When we visited the Glass Factory earlier this year in Dresden, the plant director told us over half the Phaetons being built at the time were going to China. I am not sure that's what Piech had in mind in the late 90's when he commissioned the Phaeton, but don't look a gift horse in the mouth.