Volkswagen's global sales were a "sweep", making a major contribution to the Group, which is the "champion" in sales worldwide. Similarly, things went well for the brand in our country, where it recorded an "explosion" in sales, which reached 32.1%! In Greece, Volkswagen recorded 9,023 new passenger car registrations in 2018 (6,870 registrations in 2017) an impressive number, which represents for the brand the biggest increase that Volkswagen recorded across Europe in the past year!
Equally impressive is the fact that this is almost double the overall increase in the car market in the past year. According to data from the Association of Automobile Dealers' Importers (ACEA), the market in 2018 closed at 103,431 new cars, up 17.4% compared to 2017, when 88,661 new cars were registered. The 9,023 registrations gave Volkswagen a market share of 8.7%, up by almost one point compared to the previous year (7.8%).
The above performance becomes even more significant if one focuses on retail classifications. These are the sales that most clearly express the consumer's preference and at the same time the dynamics and popularity of each brand. Volkswagen's retail registrations in 2018 exceeded 4,400 cars, representing an increase of more than 60% compared to the corresponding figure for 2017 (2,755 cars). The brand's share of retail sales increased to 9% for the year, up 2.2 points compared to the corresponding figure for 2017 (6.8%).
The Sales and Marketing Director of Kosmocar-Volkswagen, Thanasis Konistis
Commenting on the brand's impressive results in 2018, Kosmocar-Volkswagen's Sales & Marketing Director, Thanasis Konistis, said, "2018 was a very successful year for Volkswagen. We culminated with the launch of the new Polo and T-Roc, introduced the all-new Touareg, the brand's top premium SUV, and had excellent offerings in all market categories, at very good prices and with top equipment levels. Greek consumers have shown their preference for Volkswagen models, which fills us with pride but sets the bar even higher for the year ahead. The T-Cross, a new compact SUV that we will launch in Greece next quarter and many new model versions that we expect, make us very optimistic for the new year."
At international level, Volkswagen was the brand that made the greatest contribution to the Volkswagen Group becoming the world's leading brand in terms of sales. Volkswagen recorded 6,244,900 registrations worldwide in 2018, up 0.2% compared to 2017. These registrations accounted for 57.6% of Volkswagen Group's total registrations, which with total sales of 10.834 million vehicles, up 0.9% on 2017, was the top global market for 2018.
In many markets around the world, in South America, Europe, the USA and China, the Volkswagen Group achieved significant growth in 2018 despite the unfavourable environment - in China, for example, due to the overall economic uncertainty and in Europe due to the transition to WLTP. Growth was primarily supported by the Group's SUV models, with almost all brands achieving new delivery records.
In Europe, the Volkswagen Group brands delivered a total of 4.38 million vehicles in 2018 (up 1.2%), with impressive growth in Central and Eastern Europe (+7.1%). Registrations in Western Europe (3.58 million) were at the same level as in 2017.
Other important markets in North America were the US and Canada (up 2.1% and 3.7% respectively), while in South America the group's performance in Brazil was excellent (+30.4%). In the Asia-Pacific region, the Volkswagen Group recorded an increase of around 1%, with total deliveries of 4.55 million vehicles, despite the downturn in the Chinese market in the second half of the year, where the entire Chinese economy was affected by the dispute with the US over import taxes.
