The Volkswagen Group remains the world’s second largest automaker behind Toyota after selling 9,93 million vehicles worldwide in 2015, slightly down on the 10,1 million sold in 2014.

In Western Europe, sales of Volkswagen Group models hit 3.43 million, a significant 4.8 per cent increase over 2014. More specifically, sales in the company’s home country of German spiked by 4 per cent while in Spain, they rose by 16.1 per cent and Italy by 8.8 per cent. Due to ongoing economic problems in Russia, sales there fell dramatically by 36.8 per cent.

Despite the diesel emissions scandal in the fourth quarter of the year, Volkswagen still recorded sales growth in North America where it handed over 931,800 vehicles. In the United States specifically, 607,100 vehicles were sold, a 1.2 per cent rise over 2014. Interestingly, sales in South America plummeted by 29.8 per cent, largely due to a 38.1 per cent decrease in deliveries in Brazil.

In the Asia Pacific region, 3.93 million models were sold. Of those, 3.55 million went to customers in China, 3.4 per cent less than 2014.

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