Companies
18/07/2018

Volkswagen Reports Record Revenues For First Half Of 2018




The Volkswagen Group reported its highest sale ever on record for the company for the first half of the year as the Wolfsburg-based carmaker saw its global sales rise significantly. 
 
Between January and June 2018, the Volkswagen Group noted an increase of 7.1 per cent compared to the same period last year in the number of vehicles delivered to customers at more than 5.5 million vehicles. In the most recent month of June, a total of 958,600 vehicles were sold which is an increase of an annualized 4.1 per cent.
 
"We have achieved the best half year in our corporate history," Fred Kappler, Volkswagen Head of Sales, said.
 
This encouraging sale figures were reported by Volkswagen even as detailed charges in the diesel emissions scandal were presented against the company’s executives by German prosecutors. However, the continued growth of the largest automaker in the world underscored the tough resilience of the brand in the global market which it has been able top maintain even in the face of a very damaging emissions-cheating scandal.
 
All of the major economies covered by the company’s international distribution network reported record increases in sale and revenues for the first half of the year. During the first half of 2018, there was an increase in sales by 9.2 per cent to just under 2 million vehicles in the Chinese market which is the single most important customer market for Volkswagen. There was also a very significant 22.6 per cent increase in sales in Brazil while the company noted sale increase of 6.3 percent and 4.6 percent in the US and German market respectively.
 
In June, the most rapid growth by brand for the company were the more affordable models of Skoda and Seat. In comparison there was a 3.8 per cent decline in deliveries of its luxury brand Audi in the same period.
 
Volkswagen warned on Tuesday that soon to be implemented changes in regulations in various parts of the world would cause a delay and a consequent fall in deliveries in the second half of 2018 even though the company has shown strong overall performance during the first half of the year. The automaker has not yet got the clearance for all of their models in conformation with the Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLPT) aimed for the exhaust systems of vehicles that is set to become mandatory legally within the European Union (EU) for all new cars that would get registered starting September 2018.
 
"Some vehicles will probably have to be handed over to customers later than planned," Kappler said.
 
The company would have to face unexpected downtime at its Wolfsburg-based plant in the summer because of the delay and backlogs in the completion of the certification process, Volkswagen had revealed earlier.
 
Armed with brands Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Skoda, Seat, Bugatti, Lamborghini and Bentley, Volkswagen presently has about over 600,000 staff throughout the world.  the company also has a truck production unit. In 2017, the gross combined revenue reported by the company was more than 230 billion euros (269 billion U.S. dollars).
 
(Source:www.xinhuanet.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell
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