Volkswagen hits six million sales in one year for the first time.

• Group Board member for Sales Christian Klingler:  “Tenth record in succession. Deliveries doubled since 2004.”

“The Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand closed the tenth year in succession with a new delivery record, topping the six-million mark for the first time in a twelve-month period.  That means we have doubled deliveries by the brand since 2004,” Christian Klingler, Board Member for Sales and Marketing for the Volkswagen Group and the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand, commented in Wolfsburg on Friday.  

The company handed over 6.12* million vehicles to customers from January to December 2014.  The brand delivered 529,500 (December 2013: 542,300; -2.4 percent) units in the month of December.  “We expect the existing challenging market conditions to continue in 2015. However, we believe we are very well prepared to face these challenges with new products such as the Passat or the internationally acclaimed, multi-award-winning Golf,” Klingler added.

The Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand delivered 1.68 (1.64; +2.8 percent) million vehicles on the overall European market in 2014, of which 858,300 (811,800; +5.7 percent) were handed over to customers in Western Europe (excluding Germany).  

Deliveries on the home market of Germany also grew, with 578,400 (560,100; +3.3 percent) customers taking possession of a new model there.  Volkswagen Passenger Cars delivered 244,700 (263,300; -7.1 percent) vehicles in Central and Eastern Europe in the twelve months to December. 128,100 (156,300; -18.0 percent) units were handed over to customers in Russia.

Volkswagen Passenger Cars delivered 586,700 (622,300; -5.7 percent) units in the North America region last year, of which 367,000 (407,700; -10.0 percent) were handed over to customers in the United States.  Deliveries in the South America region from January to December decreased to 662,600 (804,300; -17.6 percent) units, of which 541,700 (623,800; -13.2 percent) were handed over to customers in Brazil.

In contrast, deliveries in the Asia-Pacific region grew by a substantial 9.0 percent from January to December 2014, with the brand handing over 2.97 (2.73) million vehicles to customers there. 2.76 (2.51; +10.0 percent) million vehicles were delivered in China (incl. Hong Kong) during the same period.

* Deliveries for 2013 have been updated to reflect subsequent statistical trends.  The Saveiro model, which is mainly sold in South America, has therefore been included in deliveries for the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand retroactively from January 1, 2013.  As a consequence, in purely mathematical terms deliveries by the brand in 2013 have increased retroactively from 5.93 to 6.02 million vehicles.