VW: Sales dip for commercials

Sales of Volkswagen commercial vehicles fell one per cent in the nine months to the end of September.

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles recorded sales of 321,300 urban delivery vans, Transporters and pick-ups worldwide in the period. Brand sales in January to September 2014 were 324,800. 2015 sakes were lower by 1.1 per cent

In West European markets deliveries fell 0.2 per cent to 212,500 deliveries (213,000). In Germany deliveries dropped 5.6 per cent to 81,000 vehicles (85,800). Prospects could be brighter in 2016 when production of the new Crafter van begins in Września, in Poland. As production does not get under way until the fourth quarter of 2016, the full effects will not be felt until 2017. The plant follows the end of VW's joint venture deal with Daimler AG. The new plant will create 2,300 jobs but VW has not disclosed plant capacity.

There was however another clear sales growth in the UK with an increase of 13.1 per cent to 38,500 vehicles (34,050). In Spain, the brand's sales increased by 8.5 per cent to 7,200 deliveries (6,600).

While in Eastern Europe deliveries slithered 21.2 per cent to 21,800 vehicles (27,600), sales in the Middle East rose 43.8 per cent to 26,000 vehicles compared with the previous year (18,100). In Mexico, deliveries also climbed, by 8.9 per cent, to 4,800 vehicles (4,400).

On the other hand, in South America Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles deliveries dropped 7.7 per cent to 27,700 vehicles (30,000). Likewise, the brand's deliveries in Brazil fell 34.2 per cent to 9,100 vehicles (13,900), but 14,500 vehicles were delivered on the Argentinian market, an increase of 13.0 per cent (12,850).

Worldwide: Caddy deliveries fell by 4.6 per cent to 104,500 vehicles (109,600). The T-series saw growth of 3.1 per cent to 125,100 deliveries (121,400). Amarok sales fell by 2.5 per cent to 55,600 vehicles (57,000). Crafter deliveries were up by 2.5 per cent to 36,100 vehicles (35,200).

Volkswagen has no Transporter offerings in the US. Two years ago, VW said it may launch commercial vehicles in the US as part of steps to expand its core namesake brand in that market.

Commercial pickup trucks and vans such as VW's box-type Caddy model "certainly represent an opportunity" for the US, Jonathan Browning, chief executive of VW Group of America told Reuters in September 2013.

"There are preliminary discussions (with VW's Wolfsburg-based management) but no definitive plans at the moment," Browning said in an interview.

Europe's largest carmaker currently sells models of its high-end Audi and Porsche divisions, the ultra-luxury Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini nameplates and the VW passenger-car brand in the US.

VW then said it was seeking to boost its presence in the US, eyeing 800,000 VW-brand and 200,000 Audi-brand sales by 2018, when it aims to surpass Toyota Motor Corporation and General Motors to become the world's No. 1 automaker. But that was before the ‘defeat device’ fiasco.

Launching commercial vehicles "would be a second phase" of the brand's U.S. expansion, said Browning.