Volkswagen brand sets delivery record in 2017

- 6.23 million vehicles handed over to customers worldwide;

- Deliveries up 4.2 percent on previous year;

- Most successful December in history of Volkswagen brand;

- Tiguan family with record deliveries.

Wolfsburg - The Volkswagen brand handed over a total of 6.23 million vehicles to customers worldwide in 2017, making last year the most successful yet in the history of the brand. China, the largest single market, is the main driver of this positive development. More than 3 million vehicles were delivered there for the first time last year, an increase of 5.9 per cent compared with 2016.

Volkswagen launched the biggest model offensive in the brand's history in 2017 under its "TRANSFORM 2025+" strategy. Vehicle deliveries already made significant gains during the course of the year. Volkswagen also set a new delivery record for December, handing over 594,100 vehicles (+5.6 per cent) to customers worldwide. Delivery figures for the Tiguan family were 38 per cent up on the previous year, and at over 720,000 units worldwide this family is more successful than ever before.

Jürgen Stackmann, Volkswagen Brand Board Member for Sales, said: "We are delighted with the strong demand for our vehicles and with the brand's positive momentum in recent months. I would like to thank our customers for placing their trust in us, and our retail partners for doing an excellent job. I am particularly pleased to see that incoming orders for electric vehicles in Germany and Europe have tripled compared with 2016. We will be stepping up the pace of our model offensive even further in 2018, with momentum coming from important new models such as the Polo, T-Roc and Touareg."

Deliveries in the regions and markets in December developed as follows:

- At 136,400 new vehicles, deliveries in Europe were 1.6 per cent higher than the previous year. The Volkswagen brand reported strong growth in Belgium (+17.8 per cent) and Denmark (+10.4 per cent). The positive trend was primarily driven by high demand for the Golf and Tiguan as well as the successful market launch of the new Polo.

- At 42,000 units, deliveries in Germany in December rose by 8.4 per cent. Orders in Germany continue to show a noticeable upward trend, in part attributable to positive momentum from the environmental incentive.

- Volkswagen recorded strong growth of 23.8 per cent in Central and Eastern Europe in December. Compared with December 2016, this trend was particularly pronounced in Poland (+27.9 per cent) and Russia (+35.2 per cent).

- At 51,600 vehicles, deliveries in North America were 12.3 per cent lower than the same month last year. While the number of vehicles handed over to customers in the USA in December declined by 18.7 per cent, deliveries for the full year 2017 rose by a pleasing 5.2 per cent. This is the first increase in deliveries since 2013. Canada reported an impressive 53.7 per cent increase for the last month of the year, delivering 4,200 vehicles. This trend was again driven by the Golf Alltrack and the Atlas as well as the Tiguan launched in August.

- 30,200 vehicles were handed over to customers in South America, representing an increase of 0.4 per cent compared with the previous year.

- In China, the Volkswagen brand posted new records both for December and for the full year. Deliveries to customers there increased by 12.9 per cent, or approx. 39,000 vehicles, in December compared with the same month last year. As a result, the figures for December were the best-ever monthly figures for China. At 3.18 million, deliveries in China for the full year topped the 3 million mark for the first time.

Overview of deliveries by the Volkswagen brand in 2017:

Komar JOHARI

komarjohari@gmail.com

amornthaitelegraph@gmail.com