Volkswagen enjoys Europe sales boom
23.01.2012 - Daljinder Nagra
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Volkswagen has strengthened its position as Europe's largest car maker, with a nine per cent increase in sales over the last year.
The company's figures are bolstered by the Golf, which was the fourth best-selling car in the UK in 2011, as well as Britain's most popular diesel model. The Volkswagen Polo also performed well, being the seventh most popular car in the UK in 2011.
2012 is set to be another successful year for Volkswagen, particularly in the UK. With customers looking to minimise motoring costs, sales of diesel cars have increased, and the supermini class remains the largest market segment. Volkswagen is set to capitalise on this, not only with the introduction of the acclaimed Up! city car and new Beetle, but also with its continued efforts to increase efficiency and lower running costs across the model range.
Annual figures released by the European Automobile Manufacturer's Association show that the German brand sold 1,684,150 cars in the EU in 2011, compared with 1,544,529 the year before.
All VW group brands, which include Audi, Seat and Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini, enjoyed increased European market share in new car sales.
Ford, Europe's second largest car manufacturer, was down 2.9 per cent in Europe, though UK sales were high, with the Fiesta and Focus models the two most popular cars in the UK, selling 96,112 and 81,832 units respectively.
Japanese manufacturers performed badly, particularly Honda which saw a 20.1 per cent reduction in new car sales. Parts supply issues caused by the Japanese tsunami has had knock-on effects in terms of increased order lead times and increased prices. A lack of competitiveness in the popular compact executive saloon market, also contributed to the company's shrinking market share.
Jaguar too saw a contraction in market share, sliding 14.7 per cent, despite the introduction of economical and tax-friendly versions of its XF executive saloon. Jaguar's sister company, Land Rover, enjoyed an 11.5 per cent increase in sales, due to the launch of the eagerly anticipated Range Rover Evoque model.
