For the first time ever, German automotive giant VW (Volkswagen) recorded their highest ever sales when they rolled out some 7 million units for the year ending 2010. For the global market, the VW group sold in total of 7.14 million units from its range of products. This represents an increase of market share with their increase of 13.5% from 2009 which recorded some 6.29 million units sold. The global auto market for the same corresponding year was recorded at 11.3%.
A big portion of their sales came through from China where they rolled out 1.92 million units. This sets a new record for the company which was an improvement of 37.4%. In other regions too the group recorded healthy and very positive growth rates where in the United States saw an increase of 20.9% at 360,000 units while in South America, there was an increase of 8.9% having sold 888,000 units. VW also sold 1.85 million units or a 11.6% increase in Western Europe not taking into the records for the company’s home Germany. In Russia, VW had an increase of sales of 39.5%. Due to scrapping premiums, the market in Germany last year contracted by 23.4% which actually is a form of market share expansion despite the drop in sales for VW by 16.8%. This is translated to 1.04 million vehicles sold in their home country.
In terms of brands, the company also set a new record for 2010 where rolling out 4.5 million units saw the brand climb up to 13.9% increase. The best selling market for the brand is in China where they recorded a growth of 35.5% while in the United States, there were 20.3% more VWs sold as compared to 2009 and Russia had an increment of 49.1% last year. Meanwhile the group’s other major brand Audi also set a new record when they sold 1.09 million units in 2010 which is a 15% rise with positive results coming from United States and China markets respectively. Another of their brand, the Czech Republic Skoda also recorded a healthy growth of 11.5% where they sold some 762,600 units. Their Spanish outfit, SEAT however only recorded a 0.8% growth rate for the year 2010 where they sold 339,500 units.
