Volkswagen Group saw a huge jump in sales last month due to strong growth in the U.S. and China.
U.S. sales for VW cars increased 62.5 percent in August compared to a year ago, boosting the automaker up from slow sales in debt-ridden Europe. The brand experienced its best August since 1973 with 41,011 units sold. The Passat sedan, which won the Motor Trend Car of the Year Award, set record sales but the smaller Jetta remains the volume leader with 13,377 sales for the sedan version. U.S. sales for all Volkswagen Group brands are up 33 percent so far this year
Last month, Volkswagen Group sales increased to 719,500 worldwide, up 18.9 percent. So far this year, worldwide deliveries are up just over 10 percent. Strong growth continues in the Asia-Pacific region, which has seen sales jump particularly in China. As VW’s single largest market, China sales rose to 1.70 million for the first eight months of the year.
But Volkswagen’s main target of Europe has remained a dicey proposition. The Group sold a total of 2.47 million cars in the region, but sales were down 5.8 percent in Western Europe (excluding its home state of Germany). The automaker’s Spanish brand SEAT saw sales plummet 11 percent due to lagging sales in Western Europe. But Central and Eastern Europe saw sales soar 25.2 percent to 426,800 so far this year. In Russia, another large market for VW, sales increased 53.4 percent.
In 2011, Volkswagen Group came in as the second largest automaker in the world with 8.27 million total sales. It ranked behind General Motors, which managed to capture 9.05 million sales with great help from its Wuling joint venture in China. Toyota is poised to give both automakers a run for their money by the end of the year, coming in on top in many sales estimates so far this year.
See 2013 VW cars.
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