Volkswagen AG, Europe’s largest carmaker, said annual deliveries in 2010 will exceed 7 million for the first time as sales in China surge.
VW’s 11-month deliveries in the world’s largest car market advanced 38 percent to 1.82 million vehicles, accounting for 28 percent of global sales, the Wolfsburg, Germany-based company said in a statement today.
Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn is counting on China, VW’s largest market, to surpass Toyota Motor Corp. as the world’s biggest carmaker by 2018. Passenger-car deliveries in China surged 29 percent in November to a record 1.34 million, the China Automobile Industry Association said yesterday.
“Overall prospects for China continue to look good,” said Aleksej Wunrau, an analyst at BHF-Bank AG in Frankfurt who has an “overweight” rating on the stock and forecasts an industry- wide sales gain of 12 percent in China next year. “VW will again be in for double-digit growth.”
Volkswagen’s preferred shares increased as much as 4.20 euros, or 3.4 percent, to 128.40 euros and traded up 2.3 percent as of 1:32 p.m. in Frankfurt. The stock has gained 95 percent this year, valuing the German carmaker at 55.2 billion euros ($73.2 billion).
Volkswagen’s nine-month operating profit in China more than doubled to 1.32 billion euros. VW, the first overseas carmaker to enter China three decades ago, will spend 10.6 billion euros in the country through 2015 as part of an expansion to add two factories and double production to 3 million cars annually. VW currently has nine Chinese factories.
Audi Advances
Audi, the luxury leader in China, increased sales through November in the country 50 percent to 139,900 vehicles on demand for an extended version on the A6 sedan. Czech unit Skoda posted 56 percent Chinese growth to 167,000 cars.
Deliveries worldwide at VW group brands increased to 617,000 vehicles in November, VW said today. Eleven-month sales advanced 13 percent to 6.59 million.
“Volkswagen is benefiting disproportionally from the upturn in most major automobile markets,” VW sales chief Christian Klingler said in the statement. “We will be well above last year’s level and anticipate annual deliveries of more than 7 million vehicles for the first time.”
Stimulus measures in China including a consumption-tax rebate for smaller vehicles, subsidies for rural car-buyers and incentives to trade in older models are due to expire at the end of the December. China’s auto-industry lobby said yesterday the incentives will likely expire as planned this year.
VW hasn’t greatly benefited from the program because the German manufacturer’s larger models don’t qualify for tax rebates, which are focused on smaller cars, Wunrau said.
“I can’t see how this policy is going to hurt VW greatly, they’ve only drawn marginal benefits from those measures,” he said.
