China slows down the balance sheet of VW Passenger Cars

Annual sales China slows down the balance sheet of VW Passenger Cars

2025-01-17 Source: dpa 1 min Reading Time

Another setback for the Volkswagen Group: In 2024, the core brand VW Passenger Cars sold fewer cars. SUVs are increasingly in demand, while e-cars are not.

VW's e-cars were less in demand last year.(Image: Volkswagen) — VW's e-cars were less in demand last year.
(Image: Volkswagen)

The car manufacturer Volkswagen sold slightly fewer cars of its core brand VW Passenger Cars last year than the previous year. Global deliveries fell by 1.4 percent to around 4.8 million vehicles, as reported by the Wolfsburg-based company. Sales declined especially in China, VW's most important market. The e-car sales are also weakening.

"2024 was a difficult year worldwide with weak economic conditions, political challenges, and strong competition—especially in China," said Sales Director Martin Sander. There, just under 2.2 million VW brand vehicles were delivered, 8.3 percent less than the previous year. In Europe, sales fell by 1.7 percent to 1.25 million vehicles. "Nevertheless, we are starting the new year optimistically," Sander added.

SUVs increasingly in demand—e-cars not

The VW brand saw gains in North America (+18%) and South America (+21%). The best-selling model was once again the SUV Tiguan, followed by the T-Roc. Overall, almost every second new VW car (47%) was an SUV. Compared to 2023, the share of all sales increased by another 1.4 percentage points, according to VW.

In contrast, there was a decline in e-cars. Worldwide, 383,000 electric models of the ID family were delivered last year. In 2023, it was still around 394,000 according to earlier information. A total of around 1.35 million ID models have been sold since the start of production of the ID family at the end of 2019.

The company and the union agreed just before Christmas, after long negotiations, on a restructuring program for the ailing core brand, which envisages the reduction of 35,000 jobs in Germany by 2030. The reduction is to take place without compulsory redundancies. In the previously underutilized German plants, the technical capacity is to be reduced by over 700,000 vehicles.

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