Volkswagen joins German peers facing weak China sales amid rising local competition and slowing demand.Volkswagen reported a 8.6 per cent decline in global deliveries in the second quarter on Friday, as a sharp drop in China outweighed gains in North America and Western Europe.
Deliveries in China, the automaker’s largest market, fell 36.6 per cent during the quarter, while sales rose by 7.7 per cent in North America and 1.8 per cent in Western Europe, Volkswagen said in a statement.
“The situation in China remains challenging, where we were unable to escape a significant total market decline of around 20 percent,” Marco Schubert, a member of Volkswagen’s extended executive committee for sales, said in a statement.
Volkswagen is the latest German automaker to report weakening sales in China, where domestic rivals have intensified competition and a broader slowdown in demand has weighed on foreign brands. Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Porsche this week also reported lower second-quarter deliveries, hit by competition and subdued demand in the Chinese market.
The delivery decline comes as Volkswagen considers a sweeping overhaul that could eliminate around 100,000 jobs through model cuts and further capacity reductions aimed at improving profitability.
