Volkswagen February Car sales a further indicator of global slowdown

"Increase sales, got it?" "Got it."

“Increase sales, got it?” “Got it.”

 

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.

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