Deliveries of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles were stable during the first six months of the current year. Europe’s leading manufacturer of light commercial vehicles delivered 270,700 units worldwide by the end of June. A moderate increase of 0.2 percent means that deliveries were almost at the previous year’s level (January to June 2012: 270,100 vehicles).
In Western Europe, deliveries of the brand declined by 6.6 percent between January and June 2013, to 135,300 vehicles (January – June 2012: 144,900). In Eastern Europe, deliveries decreased by 9.6 percent to 19,000 vehicles up to the end of June (January – June 2012: 21,000). In South America, the brand handed over 76,300 vehicles, or 12.7 percent more vehicles to customers (January – June 2012: 67,700). Other non-European markets also posted double-digit growth rates.
The fact that markets for commercial vehicles have been shrinking due to the crisis-ridden economies in many European countries has had an impact on the vehicle sales of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. This is offset by gains made primarily in South America, which did its part to balance out the weakness of the European markets.
“The model range of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles offers strong solutions that satisfy the needs of our customers. So they played a key role in the development of the first half-year, which has proven gratifyingly stable,” underscores Bram Schot, Member of the Board of Management Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles for Sales and Marketing. “We are aware that the European markets will be characterised by uncertainty again during the second half of the year. But we will tackle this challenge with confidence.”
