(September 16, 2013) WOLFSBURG, Germany — For the first time the Volkswagen Group delivered over six million vehicles in the first eight months of a year. The company grew deliveries from January to August to 6.17 million vehicles. August deliveries remained stable at 720,400 units (up slightly from 719,500 in 2012).

“The Volkswagen Group is in robust shape despite the economic uncertainty, and our development in the period to August remained satisfactory. For the first time, we delivered over six million vehicles to customers in the first eight months of a year,” Group Board Member for Sales Christian Klingler said. “Notwithstanding the difficult conditions, we still expect deliveries for the full year to exceed the prior-year level.”

The weakest market for Volkswagen was Europe where it delivered 2.39 million vehicles to customers, down 3.3 percent from last year.

Trends varied in the Americas. Deliveries in the North America region in the period to August grew by 10.9 percent to 593,700 units in the United States. The Volkswagen Group delivered 605,600 vehicles in the South America region during the same period, of which 447,600 units were handed over to customers in Brazil.

Group delivery figures for the Asia-Pacific region remained encouraging. 2.30 million vehicles were handed over to customers there in the first eight months, a 16.2 percent increase over last year. In China (excluding Hong Kong), the region’s largest single market, deliveries topped the two million mark for the first time in an eight-month period, with 2.05 million customers taking possession of a new vehicle.