First quarter numbers for VW’s commercial vehicle arm show 4.3 per cent rise
Despite the ‘Dieselgate’ saga that has dogged Volkswagen for more than 12 months, the German manufacturer continues to sell increasing numbers of commercial vehicles, headlined by a 4.3 per cent increase in worldwide deliveries over the first three months of 2016.
The rise, announced overnight, takes the total to 113,000 vehicles delivered across the first quarter of the year.
Almost half of those came in March, where the company increased the previous year’s level by 0.8 per cent to 46,000 vehicles.
Bram Schot, member of the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles board of management responsible for sales and marketing, says the numbers are a reflection of the new T-model and Caddy variants.
“The renewal of the model range with Caddy and T-series in 2015 is taking effect,” he says.
“It will be continued this year and next year with the Amarok and Crafter.”
Local sales in Germany topped the list in terms of unit numbers, increasing its deliveries by 3.7 per cent to 28,000 vehicles over the period.
Other markets in Europe also performed well; Italy increase numbers by 40.2 per cent, Spain jumped by 27.7 per cent, and France delivered 17.6 per cent more vehicles year-on-year.
In terms of other continents, Eastern Europe’s total rose by 2.6 per cent to 8,000 units and South America reached a total of 9,600 vehicles – a 4.1 per cent increase.
However, numbers weren’t so good in Asia-Pacific, with deliveries in the region falling 9.1 per cent to 5,000, and the Middle East, where a slight 0.5 per cent drop occurred.
The main issue came in Africa for Volkswagen; with a 29.7 per cent decrease in unit deliveries took numbers down to 3,000.
In terms of global movement by vehicle, the T-model series topped the list again with 46,800 units delivered across the world – a 7.6 per cent rise on last year.
In second place is the Caddy, with 36,700 units and a 4.9 per cent increase, followed by the Amarok, with 18,500 units and a 1.7 per cent jump.
The Crafter model range bucked the trend and slumped 5.9 per cent to 10,900 vehicles.