Corona Virus: VW Sales In China Collapse Drastically

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Corona Virus: VW Sales In China Collapse Drastically
Corona Virus: VW Sales In China Collapse Drastically

Video: Corona Virus: VW Sales In China Collapse Drastically

Video: Corona Virus: VW Sales In China Collapse Drastically
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The corona virus also has a firm grip on the automotive industry: Volkswagen's sales in China plummeted.

In the brand's most important single market, deliveries fell by almost three quarters (74.0 percent) to 60,900 vehicles during the past month compared to the previous year. The company announced this on Friday.

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The effect was largely responsible for the fact that, even from a global perspective, there was a considerable minus of 24.6 percent to 546,300 cars in the Wolfsburg sales statistics. VW expects the situation to stabilize somewhat soon.

It was clearly a Corona month

According to the company, the main reason for the latest development, especially in East Asia, was the uncertainty about the Covid-19 pathogen. "Our business in February was massively affected by the fact that China has hardly moved out of its own four walls," said a manager. It was "clearly a Corona month".

Demand also fell in some other markets. For example, the world's largest car company lost 10.6 percent fewer cars in the entire Asia-Pacific region. In Western Europe the minus of 3.5 percent was still relatively minor. Things went better in North America (+8.4 percent) and South America (+13.9 percent). Overall, the reluctance to buy is also clear in comparison to the already critical January: In relation to the previous month, the VW Group recently fell by 13.9 percent, in China including Hong Kong by 35.0 percent.

The core brand VW Passenger Cars was by far the hardest hit. Their deliveries dropped globally by almost a third (32.1 percent) to 270,100 cars in February. It was followed by Audi (-22.5 percent) and Skoda (-19.1 percent). Among the volume brands, only the Spanish subsidiary Seat achieved minimal growth (+1.0 percent).

80 percent slump for industry

According to VW estimates, the entire auto industry in China slipped even more sharply, the talk is of 80 percent. The group was able to cushion that somewhat: "Volkswagen has done better than the overall market." It is hoped that the country will start to relax this month. Industry-wide, the minus is likely to be 40 to 50 percent below the previous year. "Towards early summer you could reach a level comparable to the previous year." Volkswagen's joint venture partners FAW and SAIC are also “cautiously optimistic that we are on a recovery trend”.

Because numerous customers recently stayed at home for fear of infection, VW has increasingly relied on online contacts. On the production side, after the temporary interruptions at the beginning of the virus crisis in China, the worst is now behind you. "Except for 2 plants out of 33, we have all of them back online," said the manager.

The group's supply chains were maintained: "Deliveries from China have not been torn down." There is still “one critical component”, but there is no need to worry about a defect at the European locations. According to current estimates, the start of production of all planned new models in China is not at risk in 2020. (dpa)

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