Volkswagen Group Sales Brave European Malaise

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

While Opel, Fiat, and PSA blame the European malaise for their lack of luck, Mercedes, BMW, and now Volkswagen can’t get the grins off their faces. Volkswagen reports global group sales of 642,300 for February; this is up 5.1 percent from the 557,900 sold in February 2011. Global vehicle deliveries by the Volkswagen Group in January and February 2012 rose by 7.7 percent to 1.29 million units. According to Volkswagen, the world automotive market was up by roughly 6 percent in the first two months. This indicates that Volkswagen won worldwide market share.

The following tables show why Volkswagen has reason to be happy. In the first two months of the year, Volkswagen slightly increased sales in Europe, propelled by 34.2 percent growth in Central and Eastern Europe. Volkswagen is very strong in Asia, in China alone, sales are up 13.4 percent, while the overall market dropped 4.37 percent in China. A good showing in NA adds to the growth. In all these markets Opel, Fiat, and PSA are either not present or too weak to make a difference.

Volkswagen Group Sales January-February 2012 By Region

Jan/Feb 12Jan/Feb 11YoYEurope532,700526,0001.3%Asia/Pacific397,400350,60013.3%North America110,10087,60025.7%South America146,200145,4000.6%

The by brand table again shows that Volkswagen has placed its chips right. ŠKODA, traditionally strong in Central and Eastern Europe, helps shore up group sales in the region. Seat, Volkswagen’s brand with the most southern exposure, drops 12.2 percent without ruining the overall picture.

Volkswagen Group Sales January-February 2012 By Brand

Jan/Feb 12Jan/Feb 11YoYVolkswagen passenger cars818,800758,1008.0%Audi202,700186,8008.5%ŠKODA147,500132,10011.7%SEAT44,80051,000-12.2%Volkswagen Commercial79,70073,2008.9%Total1,293,5001,201,2007.7%
Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

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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  • Sitting@home Sitting@home on Mar 10, 2012

    Hmmm ... Opel, PSA & FIAT down while BMW, Mercedes and VW up. The pessimist in me sees this as the rich getting richer while the not-so-rich getting not-so-richer (the poor don't buy new cars). Well we'll have to hope that the extra mechanic's visits generated by all those new German cars trickles down as income to the rest of us.

    • Th009 Th009 on Mar 11, 2012

      Take Audi out of the picture, and the VW-Skoda-SEAT model range covers much the same territory as PSA, Ford Europe, Opel or FIAT. And yet the sales are going in the opposite direction, even within Europe. It's not just rich vs not-so-rich ...

  • Automaniak Automaniak on Mar 10, 2012

    Nice manipulation. VW Group global sales vs European Fiat + Opel sales. Why not to compare to Fiat/Chrysler + GM global sales ? And we will see they also 'can’t get the grins off their faces' And no word about GM strong sales in China and Fiat in Latin America. No word about Chrysler USA huge progress, etc ..

  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
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