Volkswagen Group’s sales in China edged up 0.6 percent to top 4.2 million in 2019, outpacing the 8.2 percent drop in the overall new car and light-truck market and padding the automaker’s market share.
The German group’s 2019 sales were shored up by the VW mass-market brand as well as the Audi and Porsche luxury marques, according to results released by the individual brands.
Deliveries at VW brand gained 1.7 percent to exceed 3.16 million while Skoda sales slumped 17 percent to roughly 282,000. Audi volume increased 4.1 percent to 690,083 while Porsche deliveries rose 8 percent to 86,752.
VW Group expanded its share of China’s new light-vehicle market to 19.7 percent in 2019, two percentage points higher than a year earlier, according to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
The latest gain enabled the German auto giant to strengthen its position as the largest automaker in China, leaving its nearest rival General Motors further behind.
The Detroit automaker’s China sales contracted for the second straight year, slipping 15 percent to 3.09 million vehicles in 2019, according to numbers it released last week.
