Challenging year dents global sales

The Volkswagen Group delivered more than 9.3 million vehicles to customers worldwide in 2020, a drop of 15.2 per cent on the previous year’s performance.

The company, whose brands include VW, Audi, Skoda, Seat and Porsche, says it saw trade levels improve as the year drew to a close with December’s sales only 3.2 per cent lower than the same period of 2019.

All-electric vehicles launched by the group proved one of the successes of 2020, with deliveries more than tripling year-on-year to about 231,600.

Christian Dahlheim, the group’s head of sales, says the Covid-19 pandemic made it an “extremely challenging year”. 

“The Volkswagen Group performed well in this environment and strengthened its market position,” he notes. 

“We are particularly pleased that we hit the ground running in our e-offensive in spite of the pandemic and thus took a big step forward in the implementation of our Together 2025+ strategy.

We will keep up the momentum this year, adding many more attractive electric models.”

Sales of passenger cars for the VW brand alone fell 15.1 per cent to 5.33 million units. In 2019, the company sold 6.28m vehicles worldwide.

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles delivered 371,700 units across the world last year, a drop of 24.4 per cent from 2019. 

One bright spot came in September 2020 when demand increased 13.3 per cent but it was the only month of the year to finish ahead of the corresponding month in 2019. 

The bulk of its business went to Western Europe where it shifted 264,900 vehicles, which represented a fall of 21.8 per cent. In the Asia/Pacific region, the company saw commercial sales tumble 34 per cent to 15,300 units. 

Skoda passes milestone

Skoda broke the one-million sales mark for the seventh year in a row in 2020.

It delivered 1,004,800 vehicles worldwide despite challenges due to the coronavirus crisis, with the marque increasing sales in Russia, Turkey and Egypt.

While numbers were down in most of other countries, Skoda says it increased its market share in the UK to a record 3.6 per cent – up from 3.2 per cent in 2019.

Skoda’s most popular model in 2020 was the Octavia, pictured, after it sold 257,400 units, which represented a fall of 29.2 per cent from the previous year. 

Thomas Schafer, chief executive officer, explains: “Delivering over one million vehicles worldwide is a great success for Skoda Auto, especially against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting five-week production shutdown during the first wave in [the northern hemisphere] spring.

“Skoda has many new products in the pipeline, and I have high expectations for them. Nevertheless, we remain vigilant, and we are keeping a close eye on further developments in the markets.”