VW's vehicle sales grow in the first half of 2013

"Volkswagen Group deliveries made satisfactory progress even though market conditions were not always easy. However, the economic climate remains tense, especially in Europe", said group board member for sales, Christian Klingler.

He added, "We remain on course and are entering the second half of the year with confidence. Nevertheless, enormous challenges persist."

Locally, Volkswagen Group South Africa sold 58, 140 (52, 080 in January to June 2012:+10.4%) vehicles in the first six months of 2013. The performance gives Volkswagen Group South Africa 18.1% market share in the total vehicle market in South Africa.

Volkswagen's sales growth of 10.4% outperformed the local total vehicle market growth of 6.8% by 3.6% in the first half of the year. In the passenger car market, Volkswagen Group South Africa is still the market leader with 24.3% market share.

Polo Vivo is a best seller

The Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand delivered 2.91 (2.79: +4.4%) million vehicles to customers worldwide from January to June. In South Africa, the Volkswagen Passenger Brand sold 44,148 units (39 436:+11.9%). Polo Vivo, the best-selling passenger brand in South Africa for the past three years, delivered 18,816 units, whilst Polo sold 14,639 units.

Audi delivered 780,500 (733,200) vehicles worldwide in the first half year, an increase of 6.4 %. Audi South Africa reported total sales of 9,737 units (8 095: +20.3%) from January to June 2013. At the same time, Audi's market share in the premium segment grew to 22.4% (19.9% in 2012). The top selling models were A4 (3,207), A3 (1, 684) and Q5 (1,045).

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles enjoyed stable development in the first half year with deliveries running at 270,700 (270,100; +0.2 %) units. Locally, sales of the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles' models slowed down by 6.5% to 4,255 units (4,549 in 2012). The sales of the Amarok Double Cab, however increased by 21.9% to 1,988 units (1,550 in 2012) between January and June 2013.

"All our three brands performed consistently in the first half of the year and helped the company to strengthen its market leadership position in the South African passenger car market. The second half of the year will be tougher due to weak economic conditions but we believe the South African market will show slight growth by the end of the year," said Mike Glendinning, director: Sales and Marketing at Volkswagen Group South Africa.

*includes deliveries by the Porsche brand from August 1, 2012; excluding MAN and Scania