Volkswagen sales decrease by 2% in first four months of 2016

Volkswagen Passenger Car sales between the months of January and April were down 39,200, or 2%, on the same period from the year before, suggesting the ongoing emissions scandal has had an impact on brand image. 

However, strong growth elsewhere in the VW Group has seen the car maker’s overall sales grow by 0.6%. VW’s passenger car division sold 476,700 cars this April, which is a significant 3.9% down on the same month in 2015, but all other VW Group brands saw growth, with Audi and Skoda recording increases of 4.9% and 4.7% respectively.

Porsche recorded the largest growth of the group, selling 77,500 cars between January and April, which is 6.8% more than in 2015.

Audi also celebrated record-breaking 12 months sales, having delivered 1.8 million cars since April of 2015.

A total of 3.36 million VW Group vehicles were sold to customers across the world in Q1 of 2016, with 853,300 of those sales coming from April alone, representing a growth of 3.8% on the same period in 2015.

Western Europe accounted for 317,300 deliveries, which is up 2.9% on the year before, and Germany alone demanded 121,900 vehicles, a 3.8% increase on 2015.

However, the biggest growths were felt in other markets, with Central and Eastern Europe demand up by 9.3% on the year before, and North American demand up 4.9%.

Demand for VW Group products was also up by 3.1% in the Asia-Pacific region, where 1.36 million vehicles were delivered between January and April, and a small but significant growth of 0.1% was felt in China, where the market has been shrinking in recent months.