Volkswagen’s Sales Climb 11%

Volkswagen Group reports that its global new-vehicle deliveries rose 11% to 908,200 units in July, led by a 24% increase to 408,300 units in Europe.

All VW Group brands posted hefty increases last month: VW (+8% to 505,900 units) Audi (+7% to 165,300), Skoda (+15% to 99,700), SEAT (+36% to 52,700) and Porsche (+14% to 22,300.

The group’s truck operations reported double-digit gains in July with increases of 13% to 41,900 for VW Commercial vehicles, 21% to 11,200 for MAN and an estimated 16% to 7,800 for Scania.

VW says much of the surge in July in passenger car sales was the result of special sales incentives in Europe. The discounts were intended to drain vehicle inventories ahead of Europe’s switch to tougher new WLTP (World Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure) emission rules on Sept. 1. Those incentives generated sales gains last month of more than 35% in Germany, France and Italy.

Group sales in North America were flat at 546,400 vehicles as a “tense” domestic market in Mexico offset an 8% gain in the U.S. Sales in South America jumped 17% to 51,300 cars because of a 39% surge to 35,600 units in Brazil.

Group sales in China were flat at 309,400 units in July. Deliveries there in January-July were 2.30 million, up 8%.

VW Group deliveries through the first seven months of 2018 climbed 8% to 6.43 million vehicles worldwide and 95 to 2.60 million in Europe.