The DailyKanban has had its eyes on the global slowdown of the auto market for a while. Here is yet another piece of data for the puzzle. Volkswagen’s bread and butter volume brand, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, has a difficult start this year. February was flat, January through February 2015, deliveries were down 1.6 percent, the Wolfsburg company said today. It’s not because they are lazy. The markets are getting tougher around the world. Just because things are divvy in the U.S. doesn’t mean they are everywhere. They aren’t.
Volkswagen Passenger Cars February 2015 | ||||||
Feb 15 | Feb 14 | Change | YTD 15 | YTD14 | Change | |
Total | 413,700 | 413,700 | 0.0% | 920,700 | 935,200 | -1.6% |
Europe | 121,900 | 119,200 | 2.3% | 246,800 | 245,300 | 0.6% |
WEUR (ex Ger) | 63,500 | 58,600 | 8.4% | 129,600 | 124,800 | 3.8% |
Germany | 43,000 | 39,200 | 9.7% | 85,900 | 80,600 | 6.7% |
CEUR | 15,400 | 21,400 | -28.0% | 31,300 | 39,900 | -21.5% |
Russia | 5,800 | 11,400 | -49.1% | 12,000 | 20,000 | -40.1% |
Asia-Pacific | 193,200 | 187,300 | 3.2% | 475,200 | 472,600 | 0.5% |
China | 175,700 | 169,900 | 3.4% | 441,600 | 437,700 | 0.9% |
North America | 43,900 | 43,000 | 2.1% | 85,700 | 82,700 | 3.6% |
USA | 25,700 | 27,100 | -5.2% | 49,200 | 50,600 | -2.8% |
South America | 38,700 | 48,200 | -19.7% | 83,900 | 103,400 | -18.8% |
Brazil | 29,800 | 39,600 | -24.7% | 64,000 | 79,900 | -20.0% |
Source: Volkswagen. Monthly data calculated |
In Europe, sales in Western Europe are awakening from a long deep sleep, but the region is dragged down by Central and Eastern Europe, where the clatter of tanks dissuade people from buying cars.
With a YTD increase of 0.9 percent, Volkswagen Cars underperformed the growth market China, where the CAAM reports a 4.3 percent rise of the total industry volume for January and February.
In the U.S., Volkswagen deliveries decreased 5.2 percent in February compared to Feb 2014. South America is a big cone of misery.
Please note that these are data for Volkswagen Passenger Vehicles only. Group data are expected by the end of the week, but should trend in the same direction, with low one digit plus. February deliveries of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles were up 7.1 percent. Audi deliveries were up 4.2 percent. Porsche sales were up 34.1% for the month, and 32.6% for the year.
Volkswagen is the first of the top three automakers to publish meaningful global data each month. Toyota follows later in the month. Genera Motor usually maintains cover and routinely reports total global data only in the course of its quarterly reports.