VW China April sales up 34% to 163,000 vehicles

Shanghai, May 18 (Gasgoo.com) Volkswagen AG said yesterday that its sales in its leading market, China, grew 34% from a year earlier to around 163,000 vehicles in April, media reported.

In the first four months of 2010, Volkswagen's sales in China totaled 620,500 vehicles, up 53% year on year and representing a new record level, but slower than the first-quarter sales growth of 61%.

The German auto giant's global sales rose 11% to 603,600 vehicles in April on soaring demand in China and other emerging markets. Sales in the first four months came to 2.34 million vehicles.

Shanghai Volkswagen sold 72,922 cars in April, up 25.4%, slower than the 48% annual growth for the first four months. Another Chinese venture FAW Volkswagen's April sales came to 72,266 units.

Volkswagen plans to invest 4.4 billion euros in new vehicles and expanding production capacity in China. The automaker is targeting annual sales of more than 2 million vehicles in China in the "medium-term."

Last year, Volkswagen sold more than 1.4 million vehicles to its mainland China and Hong Kong customers, an increase of 36.7% from 2008.