Volkswagen Group, the largest automaker in China, said its local deliveries dropped 10 percent year on year to some 2.66 million vehicles in the first nine months due to impact from the coronavirus outbreak.
Despite the sales decline, its share in the local new light-vehicle market rose 0.5 of a percentage point year on year to nearly 20 percent, VW said this week.
Among VW Group’s main brands, only Audi posted sales growth for the first three quarters. The brand’s deliveries increased 4.4 percent year on year to 512,900 on demand for elongated Audi A6 and A8 sedans.
In the period, sales of VW Group’s other luxury brand, Porsche, dipped 2.2 percent to 62,800.
Meantime, VW brand’s volume fell 11 percent to 1,954,100 units while Skoda deliveries plunged 36 percent to 124,900.
VW Group didn’t break out its China results for September or the third quarter.
“Our recovery to date has been meeting our expectations,” VW Group’s China CEO Stephan Wollenstein said in a statement. “With no further disruptions, our performance will be ahead of the market this year.”
With the virus outbreak remaining largely contained in China since mid-March, demand for new light vehicles including sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multi-purpose vehicles and minibuses in the country recovered for the fifth straight month in September, advancing 8 percent year on year to top 2 million.
Yet, due to a 45 percent contraction in the first quarter, China’s new light vehicle sales through September shrank 12 percent from a year earlier to below 13.38 million.
