The corona pandemic hit the carmaker to the core. Now things are looking better for the VW Group – if it weren’t for increasing problems with the supply of chips in China.
The overall significant increase in sales in the first half of the year probably finally pulled the Volkswagen Group out of the Corona sales low in mid-2020.
Especially in China, however, there are increasing problems with the supply of the still scarce semiconductor components, which recently noticeably slowed the Wolfsburg-based business in the most important car market.
According to the latest data, the brands of the largest European car group delivered almost five million vehicles worldwide between January and June. This corresponds to an increase of around 28 percent compared to the first half of 2020, when the pandemic-related closings of plants and dealerships and the collapse of consumer demand still hit the automotive industry hard.
In the home market of Western Europe, sales have now increased by almost 31 percent, where the recovery in the spring had in some cases still slowed down. For North America, VW reported a half-year plus of a good 45 percent.
In China there was an increase of more than 16 percent in the end. The second quarter alone, however, was weak, with 12 percent fewer vehicles being delivered to customers between April and June. The three months before that (plus 61 percent) had been strong. VW China boss Stephan Wöllenstein spoke of a “particularly challenging year” because of the delivery bottlenecks for electronic chips.
The individual brands were all able to make up clear ground. In the main VW passenger car division, deliveries have grown by almost 23 percent since the beginning of the year, at Audi by more than 38 and at Porsche by over 31 percent. Seat sold about 45 percent more cars. However, all values are to be seen in relation to the mixed initial level in 2020.
The higher deliveries are also causing profits to continue to surge. According to preliminary figures, the Volkswagen Group’s operating profit already reached around eleven billion euros by the middle of the year – more than in 2020 in total. The full numbers will come on July 29th.
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
