MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Emerging markets help Volkswagen sell 4 million units in first half of 2011

Sales of the ‘People’s car’ in Russia doubled

Germany’s Volkswagen has sold 4 million cars worldwide in the first half of 2011. The company hopes momentum from emerging markets will help it achieve its goal of selling 10 million cars annually before 2018.

The company hopes strong demand will continue throughout the year and push total 2010 sales above the 8 million mark, according to CEO Martin Winterkorn. The Volkswagen group's nine brands include Audi, SEAT and Skoda.

Growth was particularly strong in Russia, where Volkswagen doubled its sales to more than 45,000 vehicles. Meanwhile, the company's Chinese operations gained 13% year-on-year to sell 852,000 vehicles.

In North America, where the company recently opened a new plant in Tennessee, sales were up 21% to 237,000 units. The German concern gained nearly 5% in its home market to sell 301,000 vehicles.

“The positive development of Volkswagen's passenger car brand is welcome news,” sales chief Christian Klingler said. “It will be a great success if we're able to keep up this momentum in the second half of the year.”

The company is betting on emerging markets, but sees partnerships with local providers as central to its growth strategy, according to Bernd Osterloh, head of the VW works council.

“Naturally Volkswagen can't over-expand its labor force,” he told the newspaper Handelsblatt. “But there is great deal of opportunity in global markets.”

Volkswagen in 2010 it posted a record profit of more than 7 billion Euros.