Volkswagen Surprises With Strong August Sales

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Volkswagen announced global Group sales for August, and they are a whopping 18.9 percent over August 2011. For the first eight months of the year, Volkswagen Group deliveries are 10.2 percent ahead of what VW delivered in the same period last year. With all the bad news from Europe, how can a European car company deliver such good numbers, you ask?

Volkswagen global group deliveries August 20128M’128M’11YoYAug ’12Aug ’11YoYTotal5,910,0005,360,00010.2%719,500605,30018.9%Europe2,470,0002,430,0001.7%240,000230,0004.3%Ger792,300761,1004.1%84,20082,7001.8%WEUR ex D1,250,0001,330,000-5.8%100,000110,000-9.1%EEUR426,800340,80025.2%50,50041,20022.6%China1,740,0001,480,00017.9%230,000190,00021.1%USA380,000285,00033.3%55,80035,60056.7%South Am678,600619,6009.5%112,10081,50037.5%Black: VW data. Blue: TTAC calculated

By selling a lot elsewhere. In China, Volkswagen’s sales are up 22.6 percent in August. With 230,000 units sold in August, China is becoming as big as Europe (240,000 units) for Volkswagen. Even in Europe, Volkswagen is better positioned than others. Sales in Western Europe excluding Germany are down 9.1 percent in August, but they are up in Germany, and up a lot in Eastern Europe.

For the first time, Volkswagen counts Porsche as part of the grand total. The Group sales reflect 10,900 Porsches sold in August, but they don’t recognize Porsche sales before August. If VW continues this treatment, then its annual sales will only benefit from 5 months of Porsche sales. The numbers do not include Scania and MAN.

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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  • CruzinRum CruzinRum on Sep 16, 2012

    I don't know what's going on in the rest of the world, but the 56% US growth is from VW practically giving away cars with their 0% APR 5 year financing. Instead of the tripled sales they're aiming for, they'll more likely end up with more-than-tripled default rates. No worries, the ECB will bail them out.

    • Jmo Jmo on Sep 17, 2012

      Are VW incentives higher than Honda, Toyota, Ford, etc?

  • Sundowner Sundowner on Sep 16, 2012

    VW products are hit and miss. I've had very, very good luck with a (German built) Passat wagon built in 2010 that made it to 15k miles before being hit by a sleeping SUV driver, excellent luck with a 2006 (German built) Audi A3 that has 90k miles and my wife still drives daily, And we also have two (German built) A4's that have been as rock solid as the toyotas and subarus others own in the family. We also had one (Mexican built) 2010 Jetta TDI wagon was so horribly unreliable that I wanted to burn it to the pavement after 4 months of ownership. After 10 months it was gone. There are those who will say that the MExican built VW's are no better or worse than the German models, but I only have 5 data points to judge for myself, and in my book, they are conclusive.

  • 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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