VW Group Continues Growth in October

Rumored to be the world's number one carmaker, Volkswagen Group is growing stronger and the recent sales figures are proving this point. In October, the group increased sales by 11.1 percent, delivering a total of 557,300 units, an increase of 11.1 percent as compared to October 2008 when only 501,500 cars were sold. As for the first ten months of the year, VW Group sold a total of 5.32 million cars, up 0.6 percent over January - October 2008.

"Overall developments are better than expected thanks to our market leadership in Germany, the growth markets of China and Brazil and to our young and environmentally friendly product range," Detlef Wittig, Executive Vice President, Group Sales and Marketing, said in Wolfsburg on Friday.

"Strong order books make us quietly optimistic about the coming months. However, global passenger car markets have not made a sustained recovery yet, so we are anticipating a particularly difficult and challenging year in 2010," Wittig added.

Specifically, Volkswagen delivered 349,800 passenger cars, which is an increase of 17 percent. In China, one of the largest markets, VW sold 100,300 cars while in Brazil, sales amounted for 54,000 units. VW's domestic market purchased a total of 63,100 units.

Audi, Skoda and SEAT also performed well. Audi sold no less than 82,800 units in China, a rise of 0.4 percent over the same month in 2008. Skoda sold 65,600 cars in October, with China, Germany and the Czech Republic remaining the top markets for this particular brand. SEAT sold a total of 29,600 units last month, an increase of 1.9 percent.