Volkswagen sales accelerate to record high

Volkswagen reported its highest quarterly sales figures, selling 2m vehicles in the three months to the end of March, continuing a strong performance which saw the German carmaker make record profits last year.

Europe’s largest carmaker by sales, which includes nine marques ranging from its eponymous volume brand to the luxury Audi and Bentley units, reported revenue up more than 30 per cent to €37.5bn ($55bn) compared with the same quarter in 2010.

Strong car sales, up almost a fifth against the same quarter last year, helped lift net earnings for the three months to the end of March from €473m to €1.7bn, while operating profit more than tripled from €848m to €2.9bn.

The carmaker said deliveries in the period rose 14 per cent to just under 2m units, outstripping the 8 per cent rise in the global market, boosted by strong growth in China as well as some western European markets, including Germany and France.

More than a quarter of vehicles sold in the first quarter were in China, where delivery volumes rose 20 per cent to 549,000 vehicles. Deliveries in North America rose 18 per cent, albeit from a relatively low base.

VW said its share of the global passenger car market rose from 11.5 per cent to 12 per cent. The carmaker’s Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda brands saw the strongest sales increases. The company is benefiting from using common platforms and components across many of its nine brands.

It repeated the expectation that the global economic recovery would weaken slightly this year and warned that high commodity prices and the disruption to the supply chain from the earthquake in Japan could hold back its own performance, although it expected to beat 2010 in terms of sales and operating profits.

Highlighting the group’s financial strength, VW lifted its net cash by €1bn over the quarter to €19.6bn, even after the €3.3bn acquisition of Porsche’s Austrian car dealership holding company, and an investment in a carbon fibre maker.

VW’s shares rose almost 5 per cent to close at €126.50 in Frankfurt.

VW, which is looking to overtake Japan’s Toyota as the world’s biggest carmaker by sales in 2018, is still hoping to complete a merger with Porsche, the German sports carmaker, before the end of the year and is also aiming to enlarge its truckmaking unit by combining MAN with Sweden’s Scania. Both deals have encountered problems in recent months.

● Porsche’s carmaking division also reported first-quarter results on Wednesday, recording strong first-quarter profits. Earnings before interest and tax “more than doubled” to €496m, the Stuttgart-based company said, without providing a year-earlier figure. Sales rose 10 per cent to €2.28bn.