The Dieselgate scandal doesn’t seem to have that much of an effect (yet) on Volkswagen’s global sales, as the company deliveries only dropped just above 1 percent in the first quarter of the year.
Globally, the German manufacturer sold 1,459,500 units, “nearly on a par with the prior-year level“, as the company writes, referring to the January-March period of 2015 when 1,479,400 cars found new homes.
China is, once again, Volkswagen’s biggest market worldwide and out of the 770,700 units delivered in the Asia-Pacific region, 722,800 arrived on the Chinese market, a 6.5 percent increase over the previous period. In Europe, the brand’s sales dropped by 0.2 percent, from 430,300 to 429,300, while in Western Europe, Volkswagen sold 0.5 percent less cars.
In its local market, though, sales plunged by 3.8 percent, from 144,100 to 138,700 examples, and in Central and Eastern Europe, the automaker delivered 2.1 percent cars more. Russia accounted for 15,900 vehicles, down 12.5 percent, while in North America, 6.5 percent less units found new homes, from 136,400 to 127,600. In the United States, Volkswagen delivered a total of 69,300 units, down a significant 12.5 percent from 79,200 unit before.
South America witnessed the most significant decrease in new car sales for Volkswagen, which delivered 88,400 units, down 31.3 percent from 128,600, out of which 59,600 were handed over to customers in Brazil, down from 98,000 in January-March 2015, meaning a 39.2 percent decrease.
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