Increase of 42% in the Middle East for Volkswagen Group

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The Volkswagen Group delivered 3.27 million vehicles worldwide (+5.8%) from January to June 2008, the highest figure ever for the first six months of a year. Group worldwide deliveries in June also reached a new record: compared with the same period last year, the number of vehicles delivered rose by 2.4% to 573,000. As a result, the development of deliveries by the Group both for the period January to June and for the month of June was significantly better than developments on the overall market (+1% from January to June and -5.1% in June).

Volkswagen Passenger Cars, the Group’s highest volume brand, delivered 1.9 million vehicles (+5.8%) worldwide in the first half of the year.  Volkswagen Middle East delivered almost 6,000 vehicles across the region, an increase of a staggering 42% over the same period compared to last year. 

Mr. Hans-Dieter Keller, Managing Director of Volkswagen Middle East said, “The team at Volkswagen Middle East is extremely proud of our sales achievement so far in 2008. A 42% increase is a phenomenal rise and we are confident that this will grow for the second half of 2008. Our expanding and increasingly individual product portfolio is a big contributor to our growth.”

He continued, “One Volkswagen vehicle that has really proved to be popular with customers around the region is our new SUV, the Tiguan which launched in the Middle East in May 2008.  The sales figures and demand for the Tiguan has been exceptionally high and it has become a very important element in our ambitious growth plan for Volkswagen Middle East. Apart from our excellent model range, professional market coverage by our partners has also been crucial to our success.”

The Touareg is another model that is still winning the hearts and minds of customers in the Middle East, being the most popular Volkswagen vehicle in the region representing 29% of the Volkswagen Middle East total sales for first half of 2008.  This is followed by the Passat which contributed to 23% of total sales and then the Jetta which accounted for 22%. 

In China, the Volkswagen Group delivered 531,600 vehicles (+23.2%), thus topping the half a million mark for the first time in the first half of a year. The Group also achieved strong growth from January to June in Brazil, where deliveries rose by 21.8% to 316,000, and in Central and Eastern Europe (+18.7% to 282,000). The Group’s highest percentage growth in the first six months of 2008 came from India (+69.2% to 10,400 vehicles), Russia (+63.3% to 59,000 vehicles) and Ukraine (+46.9% to 25,900 vehicles).  In Europe, the Group delivered 1.84 million vehicles (+1.3%) from January to June, of which 534,000 (+3.7%) were delivered in Germany.

“With our customer-oriented model diversity and a focused growth strategy we have achieved a marked increase in our worldwide deliveries even though negative factors are accumulating,” Detlef Wittig, Executive Vice President, Group Sales and Marketing, commented. “The storm clouds are clearly gathering over the world’s automobile markets. Nevertheless, thanks to the strength of our brands and our model range, our development in June and throughout the first six months of 2008 has clearly been better than general market trends and we have grown our market shares worldwide.”