Volkswagen records early success in 2018 growth strategy

THE Volkswagen Group said few days ago it had already achieved the first goal of its Strategy 2018 since  last year:

 “In 2014, our Group delivered over ten million vehicles in total to customers, ranging from the e-up city car to heavy commercial vehicles.  With that is impressive confirmation, we are vigorously implementing our Strategy 2018 despite challenging market conditions. We are also making good progress with our other main goals – return on sales, customer satisfaction and top employer”, the Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen , Dr. Martin Winterkorn, said in Detroit on Sunday.

 Generally, a  total of 10.14  million vehicles were handed over to customers worldwide between  January and  December 2014.

    Group Board member for Sales Christian Klingler commented: “Our Group has doubled vehicle deliveries in the last ten years. That is an outstanding performance and an impressive result, and all Group brands have played their part in achieving this despite the  very difficult market conditions.”

Including the figures for heavy commercial vehicles, Group brands delivered a total of over 3 million vehicles to customers on the overall to  European market in 2014 while  2.03 million customers took possession of a new vehicle in Western Europe excluding Germany, the home market where . 1.24  million units were delivered  during the same period .

 The Group handed over 670,900  vehicles to customers in Central and Eastern Europe  within the same period of which 275,800  were delivered in Russia.

The company delivered 891,900  vehicles in the North America region during the period under review while   599,700 units  were handed over to customers in the United States. The Volkswagen Group delivered  vehicles in the South America region during the same period, of which 629,800 (755,200; -16.6 percent) were handed over to customers in Brazil.

 The Group continued to record encouraging figures in the Asia-Pacific region, where annual deliveries topped the four-million mark for the first time.

    According to records, the Group handed over 4.06  million vehicles there during the period  of which  million were delivered to customers in , including Hong Kong,  the Group’s largest single market.

The breakdown according to brand delivery showed that  

 Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand delivered 6.12 million vehicles to customers worldwide from January to December 2014. This means the brand has doubled deliveries since 2004, and topped the six-million mark for the first time.

Audi delivered 1.74  million vehicles to customers worldwide in 2014, a substantial increase of 10.5 percent. The premium brand from Ingolstadt grew deliveries year-on-year in almost all regions.

The sports car manufacturer Porsche delivered a total of 189,800  vehicles within  the period as  demand for models from the Stuttgart-based carmaker was particularly high in Western Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America.