VW Group suffers from a decline in sales - particularly in China and with electric cars

Volkswagen is increasingly feeling the weak demand. After BMW and Mercedes, Europe's largest carmaker also reported significantly fewer sales in the third quarter. From July to September, the group delivered 2.18 million vehicles worldwide across all of its brands, 7.1 percent less than in the same period the previous year, as the Wolfsburg company announced. 

This decline was once again significantly sharper than in the already weak previous quarter, when it decreased by 3.8 percent. Business is particularly weak in Asia. "The competitive situation is especially intense in China, which is the main reason for the global decrease in our deliveries," said Audi sales chief Marco Schubert according to the announcement. He is also responsible for this division in the overall group.

In China, VW's most important car market, deliveries went down by 15 percent, and in other Asian countries by as much as 23.4 percent. In Western Europe, there was a 7 percent drop. Here too, there is "significant headwind from the market," said Schubert. Increases in America and Africa/Middle East could not compensate for this.

Electric cars hardly in demand

There was another setback in the sales of electric cars. In the third quarter, the group delivered only 189,400 e-models worldwide, 9.8 percent less than in the same period in 2023. In China, the previously weak e-car sales increased by 5.2 percent, but in Western Europe, they went down by 11.9 percent. However, the order backlog for e-cars in Western Europe remains unchanged at around 170,000 vehicles, it was reported.

A new discount campaign is now expected to give electric cars new impetus. VW has lowered the price for the compact electric car ID.3 from October and is offering it at a promotional price of just under 30,000 euros until the end of the year. Previously, the starting price was almost 37,000 euros. For the first time since the discontinuation of the small car E-Up a year ago, there is again an electric Volkswagen available for under 30,000 euros.