China belastet: Talfahrt geht weiter: VW verkauft weniger Autos

Volkswagen, the largest automaker in Europe, continues to see a decline in sales. In the second quarter of the year, it delivered 1.89 million vehicles across all brands, a 14.3% decrease compared to the same period last year, according to the company's report from Wolfsburg. The decline in the second quarter was 8.6%, while at the beginning of the year, it was 4.0%.

For the first nine months of the year, Volkswagen delivered nearly 6 million vehicles, which is a 9.0% drop or about 600,000 fewer than the previous year. The weak performance in China is hindering growth, as sales in Europe and South America could not offset the decline primarily in China, where Volkswagen delivered about 406,000 vehicles, a 38.5% decrease compared to the previous year.

In the first nine months, shipments in the country fell by 30.2% to 1.38 million. Volkswagen is facing a declining overall market, high pricing pressure, and increasing competition from domestic manufacturers in China. Audi's sales director, Martin Sander, mentioned that the significantly declining overall market in China remains a challenge for the industry, but the company's newly developed electric models are starting to show their effect.

In the third quarter, Volkswagen managed to deliver about 30% more electric vehicles compared to the previous quarter, including pure electric cars, plug-in hybrids, and range-extender vehicles. In Europe, demand for electric cars is rising. "In our home market, we are seeing a clearly accelerating trend towards fully electric vehicles.

The main reasons are the currently high fuel prices and the broader range of entry-level models," Sander said in the statement. For the ID. Polo and its sister models, the VW ID. Cross, Škoda Epiq, and Cupra Raval, there are now nearly 150,000 orders, a significant achievement that shows they have tapped into the changing market.

In Europe, one out of every five vehicles delivered was an electric car - a total of around 586,000 out of 2.96 million vehicles. This trend is expected to continue: orders for electric cars on the home continent increased by more than half in the third quarter, with electric vehicles representing about 40% of the order book, according to Sander.

Globally, however, demand for Volkswagen electric cars is also declining. In the third quarter, deliveries of fully electric vehicles fell by 4.7% to around 240,000 worldwide. In China, they dropped by 30.1%, while in the USA, they fell by an even more significant 86.4%. From January to September, Volkswagen delivered about 679,000 electric cars worldwide (minus 5.4%).

Among the group brands, Volkswagen passenger cars delivered more than 946,000 vehicles in the third quarter, a 19.3% decrease compared to the previous year. Audi delivered about 315,000 vehicles, a 19.7% decline. Porsche also saw a significant decline, selling slightly more than 56,000 sports and off-road vehicles, a 15% decrease. Škoda showed stability with 256,700 deliveries.

The holding company Traton, which includes Scania and MAN among its subsidiaries, increased its sales by 10.5% to around 78,900 vehicles.