By Dominic Chopping
Volkswagen Group's vehicle deliveries rose slightly in the third quarter as hefty declines in China and North America were offset by gains across the automaker's other global markets.
The German car maker, which houses a stable of brands that includes VW, Audi and Porsche, among others, said its group vehicle deliveries rose 1% globally on year to 2.2 million in the quarter, with western Europe deliveries up 8% and central and eastern Europe up 13.7%. Solid gains were also booked in South America, rest of Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and Africa regions.
However, in China, where manufacturers face intense competition as rivals cut prices to win customers, group deliveries fell by around 51,000 vehicles, representing a 7.2% drop on year.
The decline comes after other German brands including BMW and Mercedes-Benz recently recorded sharp sales declines in China.
Volkswagen has consistently maintained that it will retain its pricing strategy in the country and avoid engaging in the Chinese price war.
In North America, deliveries fell 9.8% to 246,900 vehicles in a challenging environment marked by U.S. tariff uncertainty.
"We were able to compensate for the challenging conditions in China and the U.S. with partly significant increases in South America and Europe," said Marco Schubert, member of the group's extended executive committee for sales.
"Our all-electric models are a key driver of this positive development."
Battery-electric vehicles accounted for 11.5% of global deliveries in the quarter, up from 8.7%, due to rising demand in Europe and the U.S.
The group recently presented a new range of entry-level electric compact cars, which will be launched next year and come with a price tag starting at 25,000 euros ($28,900). In 2027 another EV model from the Volkswagen brand will be launched, priced from around 20,000 euros.
At the top-end of the model range, Porsche will soon unveil the new electric Cayenne SUV.
"We are convinced that the future will be electric. At the same time, however, we expect the markets to continue to transform at different speeds in the future," Schubert added.
It is, therefore, important to offer a flexible range of drive systems while continuing to focus on implementing the group-wide product launch offensive and continuing performance programs, in order to succeed in the current challenging market environment, he said.
Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 10, 2025 06:31 ET (10:31 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments