Record sales
July 12, 2011
Volkswagen sold 4 million cars worldwide during the first half of 2011, the Wolfsburg-based concern announced in a statement Monday.
The company hopes strong demand will continue throughout the year and push total 2010 sales above the 8 million mark, according to CEO Martin Winterkorn. The Volkswagen group's nine brands include Audi, SEAT and Skoda.
Growth was particularly strong in Russia, where Volkswagen doubled its sales to more than 45,000 vehicles. Meanwhile, the company's Chinese operations gained 13 percent year-on-year to sell 852,000 vehicles.
In North America, where the company recently opened a new plant in Tennessee, sales were up 21 percent to 237,000 units. The German concern gained nearly 5 percent in its home market to sell 301,000 vehicles.
A matter of momentum
"The positive development of Volkswagen's passenger car brand is welcome news," sales chief Christian Klingler said Tuesday. "It will be a great success if we're able to keep up this momentum in the second half of the year."
The company is betting on emerging markets, but sees partnerships with local providers as central to its growth strategy, according to Bernd Osterloh, head of the VW works council.
"Naturally Volkswagen can't over-expand its labor force," he told the newspaper Handelsblatt. "But there is great deal of opportunity in global markets."
Volkswagen hopes sell more than 10 million vehicles a year by 2018 at the latest. In 2010 it posted a record profit of more than 7 billion euros ($10 billion).
Author: Gerhard Schneibel (AFP, dpa)
Editor: Sam Edmonds