Volkswagen Surprises With Strong August Sales

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: September 15th, 2012

volkswagen surprises with strong august sales

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.

#August2012 #BertelSchmitt #Volkswagen

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 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.

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- Jmo on Sep 17, 2012
  
  Are VW incentives higher than Honda, Toyota, Ford, etc?
  
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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.

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