(February 17, 2017) In January 2017, the Volkswagen brand handed over 495,900 vehicles to customers throughout the world, corresponding to a fall of 4.9% compared with the previous year. Jürgen Stackmann, Volkswagen Brand board member for Sales, commented: "The Volkswagen brand started 2017 successfully. Worldwide deliveries may be slightly below the value for the previous year, but this is solely due to special effects in the major market of China. All the other reported gratifying increases compared with the previous year."

The main trends in January were as follows:

• In Europe, deliveries rose by 4.7 percent compared with the previous year, to 126,700 vehicles. This positive development was buoyed especially by the markets of Italy (+29.6 percent) and Spain (+12.8 percent. This good performance was based on strong demand for the new Tiguan.

• In the home market of Germany, 38,600 vehicles were handed over to customers, corresponding to a slight fall of 5.1 percent. As in previous months, the main reason for this fall was the extension of the leasing term for employees.

• In the USA, deliveries increased significantly by 17.1 percent to 23,500 vehicles. New sales records were reported in January for the Tiguan, Golf estate (SportWagon) and e-Golf.

• South America reported growth of 12.0 percent to 32,500 vehicles. This is a result of special effects in Argentina. In January 2016, deliveries had been especially low as a result of difficult economic and political conditions. As a result, the figure for January 2017 was considerably higher.

• In China, Volkswagen's largest sales market, special effects resulted in a fall in sales of 11.8 percent to 270,800 vehicles at the beginning of the year. This was due to the significant reduction in tax concessions for vehicles of smaller displacement classes as of the end of 2016. In addition, January had one less working day than in 2016 as a result of the Chinese New Year festivities.

• In India, the new Ameo resulted in an increase of 17.7% in deliveries. This model was developed especially for the Indian market and was introduced successfully in 2016.

The entire Volkswagen Group sold 813,700 vehicles to customers worldwide in January.

"Following strong growth last year, special effects in China affected deliveries at the beginning of the year. Especially the early date of the Chinese New Year, the increase in tax on vehicles with small engines and temporary restraint in planning on the part of Audi dealers had an impact on the sales results for January. However, we expect to continue healthy growth in China this year," said Fred Kappler, head of Group Sales of Volkswagen, commenting on the figures for January.

"Outside China, the Group recorded solid growth of 4.9 percent in its worldwide markets," Kappler added.