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 12 | Jan/Feb 11 | YoY | |
| Europe | 532,700 | 526,000 | 1.3% |
| Asia/Pacific | 397,400 | 350,600 | 13.3% |
| North America | 110,100 | 87,600 | 25.7% |
| South America | 146,200 | 145,400 | 0.6% |
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 12 | Jan/Feb 11 | YoY | |
| Volkswagen passenger cars | 818,800 | 758,100 | 8.0% |
| Audi | 202,700 | 186,800 | 8.5% |
| ŠKODA | 147,500 | 132,100 | 11.7% |
| SEAT | 44,800 | 51,000 | -12.2% |
| Volkswagen Commercial | 79,700 | 73,200 | 8.9% |
| Total | 1,293,500 | 1,201,200 | 7.7% |
642300 is up about 15% from 557900, not 5%
“While Opel, Fiat,and PSA blame the European malaise for their lack of luck”…
Lack of exports, internationalization, maybe?. “Live punishes the latecomer” (M. Gorbachev).
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.
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 …
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 ..
OK, comparing Europe only (January numbers only, ACEA will not release February data until next week):
VW Group: +0.7%
PSA Group: -14.9%
Renault Group: -25.2%
Ford: -4.3%
GM Group: -14.2%
FIAT Group: -16.2%
http://www.acea.be/index.php/news/news_detail/passenger_cars_registrations_down_7.1_in_first_month_of_2012
And I think US sales data is covered rather thoroughly in other articles.