Berlin, Oct. 15, (dpa/GNA) – Germany’s Volkswagen Group posted sales in September down by almost a third, as the global shortage of semiconductors continued to impact the automotive sector.
VW delivered a total of 626,000 vehicles worldwide, down 32.9 percent on September 2020, the company said on Friday. Over the first nine months, Europe’s largest car company sold almost 7 million vehicles, a rise of 6.9 percent on the same period last year.
The September figures continued a trend seen in August, when a fall on the year of 22.3 percent was recorded.
VW, along with other German manufacturers, has cut entire production shifts for weeks on end. Semi-finished cars are being stored awaiting deliveries of microchips.
The decline in China, VW’s largest market, was particularly severe, with deliveries down 41.8 percent on the year in September.
By contrast, the decline in North America came in at 11.2 percent.
Most VW brands were hit, with the exception of truckmaker MAN and the small luxury marques, Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti.
Over the first nine months, sales of purely electric cars rose by 138 per cent to a global total of 293,100 vehicles.
GNA