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Volkswagen Group Sells 10.83 Million Cars in 2018, Sets New Record

With an increase over last year’s figures of just under one percent and a total number of 10.83 million cars sold, the Volkswagen Group (VAG) with all its countless brands set a new record in the automotive industry.
VAG 2018 sales charts 1 photo
Photo: Volkswagen
Despite being perhaps the most unprepared in the industry for the coming into force of the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) in Europe and despite citing various and mysterious political and economic uncertainties, VAG has once again proved that is perhaps the biggest car group in the world.

In its home continent, the group delivered 4.38 million vehicles in 2018, 1.2 percent more than in 2017. That figure was achieved despite on and off sales for some of the cars not meeting the WLTP requirements.

In the U.S., 638,300 vehicles were delivered by the group’s brands (+2.1 percent), while South America grew by 13.1 percent to 590,000 vehicles.

The Asia-Pacific region was however the top performing market of the group, selling a total of 4.55 million vehicles. The number is 0.9 percent higher than in 2017.

As for the brands it owns, they each contributed to the success of the group, except for Audi, which posted a 3.5 decrease in sales (1,878,100 cars). The others were all in the green: Volkswagen 0.2 percent up (6,230,300 cars), Skoda up 4.4 percent (1,200,500 cars), SEAT 10.5 percent up (468,400 cars) and Porsche 4 percent up (246,400 cars).

In the grand calculus it made, Volkswagen also includes its Commercial Vehicles, MAN and Scania divisions, which combined sold a total of 704,600 vehicles.

“Even though setting new records is no longer our primary goal, we are very pleased about this great result,” said in a statement Christian Dahlheim, head of VAG sales.

"It was possible to achieve this new deliveries record for the Group thanks to a combination of outstanding products and the high level of trust placed in us by our customers."

We’re now left waiting for the sales figures coming from Toyota and the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance before saying for certain which of the three was king last year.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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