VW Brand Boosts Global Sales 16%

Volkswagen AG reports it sold 501,300 cars worldwide under its namesake brand in October compared with 430,900 units a year earlier, despite stagnant demand in Europe.

The company doesn't break out monthly volume by region. But a comparison to previous reports indicates demand across Europe was unchanged year on year at 140,000 vehicles.

VW says it hopes its European sales will benefit in coming months from the seventh-generation Golf small car that was launched there last week. The company states it already has more than 40,000 orders for the car.

The VW brand's October volume climbed 17% to 73,400 vehicles in Latin America, 21% to 52,000 units in North America and 17% to 14,200 units in Russia. Demand jumped 19% to 190,000 vehicles in China and doubled to 20,000 in the rest of Asia Pacific.

From January through October, the marque's global sales rose 11% to 4.72 million vehicles.