Volkswagen, which recently overtook Toyota to become the world’s biggest automaker, has lowered its global sales forecast for 2015 citing weaker demand from China and other key markets.
The 12-brand Volkswagen (VW) group, based in the northern German city of Wolfsburg, said Wednesday that revenue would stagnate this year, revising an outlook for a “moderate” increase in customer deliveries.
“We are keeping a very close watch on global macroeconomic trends, especially where there are uncertainties such as in the Chinese, Brazilian and Russian markets,” CEO Martin Winterkorn said in a statement.
This comes after the company’s second-quarter sales dipped 2.7 percent to 2.55 million units, with foreign turnover seeing an even steeper decline of 3.8 percent. During the first half, sales slipped 0.5 percent to 5.04 million units.
Volkswagen’s profit fell sharply by 16 percent in the second quarter, to 2.67 billion euros ($2.95 billion). For the half year, the decline was 0.5 percent.
Nevertheless, figures released Tuesday showed that Toyota fell behind Volkswagen as the world’s biggest automaker as the German giant outsold its Japanese rival in the first half of the year.
The company underwent a bitter power struggle earlier this year that led to supervisory board chief and patriarch Ferdinand Piech stepping down in April.
One of the issues behind the rift between Piech and Winterkorn – who had been seen as Piech’s close ally and heir apparent – was the carmaker’s difficulties in making substantial inroads into the US market and its over-reliance on the Chinese market.
bea/sri (AFP, AP)
