Car companies announce half-year sales results

A NUMBER of manufacturers have released their sales results for the first six months of 2017, with several car-makers posting positive growth.

After being left reeling in the wake of the ‘dieselgate’ emissions scandal and its subsequent financial consequences, Volkswagen Group has at least been able to keep its vehicle sales steady so far in 2017 with a 0.8 per cent increase in global sales.

Overall sales increased from 5,115,900 units in the first six months of 2016 to 5,155,600, with the greatest increases coming in Central and Eastern Europe (+12.9 per cent) and South America (+11.4 per cent), while decreases in sales occurred in Asia Pacific (-2.7 per cent) and Volkswagen’s native Germany (-1.0 per cent).

Of all VW Group’s brands, only Audi registered less customer deliveries in the first half of 2017 with 909,000 – down 4.7 per cent or 44,300 units on 2016.

The largest increases happened to Seat (+13.7 per cent), Scania (+8.2 per cent) and Porsche (+7.2 per cent), while Volkswagen was relatively steady with an increase of 0.3 per cent.

New vehicle deliveries in the month of June were up 4.2 per cent for all of VW Group’s brands.

BMW Group has achieved record half-year sales in the first six months of 2017, with a sales increase of 5.0 per cent across the BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brands.

1,220,819 total sales were recorded, with the greatest areas of growth coming from Asia (+15.1 per cent) and in particular China (+18.4 per cent), while Latin America (+15.4 per cent) and Europe (+2.2 per cent) returned positive results.

Sales in the Americas (-2.5 per cent) and Germany (-1.4 per cent) were down.

BMW had the strongest growth of the three group brands with a 5.2 per cent increase, with Mini second at 3.6 per cent. Rolls-Royce sales shrunk by 6.5 per cent over the first six months of 2016.

The greatest sales increase came from BMW and Mini electrified vehicles, with 42,573 sales in the first half of the year representing a 79.8 per cent increase.

BMW Motorrad, the German manufacturer’s motorcycle division, also recorded a 9.5 per cent sales increase.

Renault has set a half-yearly sales record with 1,879,288 total deliveries, representing a 10.4 per cent increase over 2016.

The biggest increase came from the Asia Pacific region with a 50.5 per cent increase from 66,729 sales up to 100,452, while Africa, the Middle East and India (+19.3 per cent), the Americas (+14.6 per cent) and Eurasia (+8.6 per cent) performed well.

The smallest increase happened in Renault’s native France, which saw a 1.8 per cent uptick in sales.

Passenger cars grew faster than light-commercial vehicles – 10.8 per cent compared to 4.3 per cent.

Nissan Group recorded a 2.7 per cent increase in sales from 798,114 to 819,688 units, with its passenger cars falling 11.6 per cent but SUVs and trucks up 20.7 per cent.

Nissan sub-brand Infiniti started the year strongly thanks in part to an aggressive new model roll-out strategy, with sales up 21.8 per cent. Nissan itself recorded a more modest 1.0 per cent increase.

Kia experienced a 9.4 per cent drop in global sales, from 1,457,599 to 1,320,224, on the back of a 9.9 per cent decrease overseas. Domestic sales suffered less, with a 7.6 per cent fall.

South Korean-compatriot Hyundai also saw a 2017 drop to the tune of 8.2 per cent, with overseas markets falling 9.3 per cent while domestic sales remained relatively steady, decreasing by 1.8 per cent.

Brands including Volvo, PSA, Ford, Daimler, Toyota and Mazda are still yet to release their half-yearly global financial reports.