Find Reviews by Make:
Growth at the world’s second largest automaker, the Volkswagen Group, took a breather in January. As indicated by its passenger vehicle division a few days ago, growth at the Volkswagen Group turned to a 1.3 percent trickle globally. This was caused by a calendar-induced decrease in China, combined with a soft European market.
Volkswagen January 2012 By Market
| Jan ’12 | Jan ’11 | Change | |
| Global | 652,500 | 644,200 | 1.3% |
| NA | 53,500 | 41,900 | 27.7% |
| U.S.A. | 36,700 | 26,300 | 39.5% |
| South Am | 78,100 | 74,700 | 4.6% |
| Asia / Pacific | 233,500 | 239,500 | -2.5% |
| China | 208,200 | 217,900 | -4.5% |
| Europe | 259,900 | 262,500 | -1.0% |
| Germany | 74,100 | 74,800 | -0.9% |
Volkswagen becomes increasingly dependent on the Asian market, which approaches European levels. Volkswagen’s premium brand Audi continues to do extremely well in China, where it did beat all calendar odds by delivering 27,200 units in January, up 22.6 percent from the 22,200 sold in January 2011.
Volkswagen January 2012 By Division
| Jan ’12 | Jan ’11 | Change | |
| VW Passenger | 419,200 | 418,600 | 0.1% |
| Audi | 96,100 | 95,400 | 0.7% |
| ŠKODA | 75,400 | 68,400 | 10.2% |
| SEAT | 21,700 | 25,700 | -15.6% |
| VW Commercial | 39,500 | 35,700 | 10.6% |
| Other | 600 | 400 | 50.0% |
8 Comments on “Arrested Growth At Volkswagen...”
Read all comments
Is VW including MAN and Scania in these numbers, maybe within VW Commercial?
No, VW commercial is its own separate brand (though hardly anyone notices) and the 39,500 vehicles were all of that brand…
MAN and Scania numbers are apparently not included in their monthly totals, though they are included in the numbers VW prints into their annual report (since they are part of the group).
Regarding the numbers, I really would be interested in knowing how they “global market” did in January 2012. In the three big markets of China, Europe and the USA VW performed quite a bit better than the overall market (or the competition of GM and Toyota), so it would seem likely that they also outpaced the world market. However that would mean that global car sales probably decreased in January 2012…
Looks like SEAT is still having problems. Skoda though is flourishing (as seen by the Octavia entering the European top 10) – that makes sense since Skoda is essentially a VW in a more conservative wrapper AND a cheaper price. SEAT was meant to be the more sporty brand but those (i.e. Pontiac) seem to have a hard time delivering volume.
Yes, the positioning of Seat never really worked out on a worldwide (or even international scale). What Seat really is for VW is a regional brand for south-west europe, that is also offered in the rest of europe (also, Seat-factories do produce a couple of VW models). Sadly, those are the countries that are having the biggest difficulties now / in the past couple of years, which is making it even harder to get the brand into the black.
I agree that as originally a Spanish brand it appeals more to southern Europe. When I bought my Ibiza Sport back in 2002 they were trying to emphasis their sportiness vs VW and Skoda (design, powertrain etc). However now you can get Skoda vRS models (including a wagon) that have the same powertrains it means SEAT have very little that is unique – one issue with some many brands in the same space. SEAT is probably safe because it costs little to differentiate them from the other VW brands and they bring in 250,000 sales.
That SEAT sales drop is entirely within Europe, which makes up 90% of its sales anyway. No per-market figures are available, but I expect that it’s the struggling Spanish market where the sales were lost.
Safe? As long as SEAT can break even, I expect you’re right. If the losses start mounting up again, things may change, though.
Then again, SEAT is still doing double the volume of Alfa Romeo …
Despite the torrent of hype and obfuscation flowing out of Europe’s governments, the economic disaster there is unfolding as it must:
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/02/about-that-increase-in-spanish-car.html
The global orgy of spending is over… for cars, and everything else.
There was no “global orgy of spending”. There was and is a global orgy of the 0.1% grabbing everything for their piggish selves and sticking everybody else with the bills.