China market demand helps boost VW Q1 sales

Shanghai, April 19 (Gasgoo.com) Europe's largest automaker Volkswagen AG has announced that its first-quarter sales increased 25% to 1.73 million, helped by a surge in the Chinese market demand, media reported.

In the first three months, VW and its two Chinese joint ventures, FAW-Volkswagen and Shanghai-Volkswagen, sold 457,259 vehicles in China's mainland and Hong Kong, up 61% more than a year earlier, with sales in March growing 50% year on year to 169,084 units, the German automaker said.

Global deliveries at VW's seven car brands and light-truck division rose to 1.73 million from 1.39 million a year earlier, the company said Friday. "There are clear signs of a revival on the overall passenger car market in many parts of the world," sales chief Christian Klinger said.

In China, Volkswagen AG's biggest global market, March sales of Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda branded cars "exceeded expectations" and all rose by more than 50%, the company said, forecasting continued strong growth in China for the rest of the year.

"Sales [in China] in the first quarter allow us to be more optimistic," said Winfried Vahland, president of Volkswagen Group China. "We will speed up our product offensive and focus especially on customer satisfaction in the coming months."

Volkswagen sold more than 1.4 million vehicles to its mainland Chinese customers in 2009, an increase of 36.7% from 2008. Auto sales in China, now the world's largest market, have been boosted by government incentives.