VW Group Sales Slide 4%

Volkswagen Group reports its global sales in January shrank 4% to 813,700 units, pulled down by results in China.

Deliveries last month rose 7% to 312,900 in Europe and 9% to 66,600 in North America. Volume rose 9% to 39,600 vehicles in South America in spite of an 18% drop to 19,300 units in Brazil.

But those gains were offset by a 14% drop to 344,000 units in China, where the early timing of the Lunar New Year holiday eliminated five selling days compared with January 2016. Group sales outside China climbed 5% last month.

VW-brand passenger vehicle sales in January declined 5% to 494,900 units, and demand for Audi-brand cars and crossover vehicles dropped 14% to 124,000 vehicles. But volume advanced for Skoda (+2% to 93,800 units) and SEAT (+17% to 32,300). Porsche sales rose by 100 units to 20,000 vehicles.

VW Commercial Vehicle deliveries last month jumped 12% to 35,000 units. Deliveries of heavy-duty trucks slipped 2% as a 5% drop to 6,400 units by MAN offset a 3% gain to 5,500 trucks by Scania.