Volkswagen Group China delivered over 1 million cars in the first nine months of 2009

The sales figure topped that of the whole year of 2008, an increase of 37.0 percent over the same period of last year

Volkswagen Group China, with its two joint ventures Shanghai Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen, announced today that it has delivered to its customers in China's mainland and Hong Kong 1,061,964 cars in the first nine months of 2009 (January-September 2008: 775,341), an increase of 37.0 percent compared with that of last year, topping the number of delivery of the whole year of 2008. In September alone the deliveries to customers reached almost 150,000 units, making a new single month sales record. Sales of the Volkswagen brand amounted to 871,037 (January-September 2008: 639,099, up 36.3 percent), including 15,006 imported vehicles. Audi delivered 108,859 vehicles to customers (January-September 2008: 90,934, up by 19,7 percent), including 10,130 imported units. Skoda sold 81,652 units (January-September 2008: 44,829, up by 82.1 percent). Bentley sold 332 and Lamborghini 84 units in this period.

 

"As a locomotive of the world economy, China keeps growing at a high rate. China's passenger car experienced an unexpected high growth and all our locally produced brands - Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda - have registered remarkable sales records month by month. The first units of the new Golf will be delivered to Chinese customers in the next week. We will introduce to the public several new models in China until the end of 2009. We will also speed up the investment flow in China and increase our production capacity," said Dr. Winfried Vahland, President and CEO of Volkswagen Group China. "We surpassed the 1,000,000 record sales landmark of last year already in middle of September. Based on our current figures we expect for the whole year a solid double-digit growth of more than 30 percent for the group!"

 

Boosting investment

Earlier, Volkswagen Group announced its investment plan of a total of four billion Euros between 2009 and 2011 in China. The investment is for the capacity expansion at the Nanjing and Chengdu plants and is to be put into new model development, which will undoubtedly lay a solid foundation for Volkswagen Group's continued success in China in the days ahead.

 

New records for Volkswagen Group's brands in China

For the Volkswagen Group, China is one of the most important markets in the world. The current achievements make it reachable for the group to achieve its target in China of doubling its sales to two million vehicles laid down in Strategy 2018 earlier than planned.

 

The Volkswagen brand achieved a new sales record in September with 119,560 units sold (September 2008: 73,483, up by 62.7 percent). The newly introduced models Volkswagen Lavida and New Bora as well as the popular models Passat, Magotan, Sagitar and Polo registered very strong growth rates. October 19th will be the date for the launch of the locally produced new Golf in Changchun. The Golf GTI, the first locally produced sports car, will be displayed at the Guang Zhou Autoshow in November 2009.

 

Audi, as a leader in the local premium car market achieved a new record in September with 15,249 units delivered (September 2008: 11,169, up by 36.5 percent). More than 24,700 customers already purchased the new long-wheelbase midsize sedan Audi A4L (up by 53 percent in the first nine months of the year).

 

In August 2009, Skoda launched Skoda Superb in China. So far, a total of over 2,000 customers have already placed orders with this new Skoda flagship product. In September Skoda sold more than 10,000 units of Skoda Octavia per month for the first time. The brand achieved also a new sales record in September with 14,328 units sold (September 2008: 4,975, up by 188.0 percent).

 

Volkswagen Group China: Highlights January-September 2009

January

• "Olympic Program" (2005-2008) successfully fulfilled
• 1,024,008 cars delivered in 2008 - the landmark of one million car delivery in 2008 reached

February

• Kick-off of Strategy 2018 with the objective of doubling sales to over 2 million cars by 2018

March

• 284,143 sold cars (+6%) in Q1: Sales Exceeded Expectation

April

• Shanghai Autoshow 2009: BlueMotion Technologies, Passat New Lingyu and New Golf debuted
• Second series of successful Volkswagen Road Safety Education TV Program launched

May

• FAW-VW Chengdu plant construction project launched
• An environmental education program "Volkswagen Green Journey" entered Poyang Lake Wetland
• Local production of Volkswagen Passat New Lingyu started June
• Volkswagen 2009 China vs. World Team table tennis challenge match in Shanghai

July

• Record sales in first half of 2009 (652,222 units sold) with double-digit increase (up 22.7 percent)

August

• Production anniversary at FAW-Volkswagen: Roll-off of the 3 Millionth car and the start of local production of the new Golf
• Skoda Superb launch at Shanghai Volkswagen

September

• An environmental education program "Volkswagen Green Journey" entered Lhas
• Volkswagen Group announced an investment of four billion Euros in plant expansion and new products between 2009 and 2011
• Audi opened new assembly hall in Changchun for Audi A4L and Audi Q5

October

• Production anniversary at Shanghai Volkswagen: Roll-off of the 5 Millionth car
• Ceremony for Shanghai Volkswagen's 25th anniversary
• Volkswagen TSI and DSG event in Dalian - "Maximum power, minimum consumption"
• The new Golf launch at FAW-Volkswagen