China tops Germany as Volkswagen's largest market

By: Linda Luo   2010-02-07

Volkswagen will invest more than €4 billion in China in the next three years.

China replaced Germany in 2009 as Volkswagen AG's No. 1 market with total sales of 1.4 million vehicles, Xinhua reported.

Amid a global downturn, Volkswagen sold 6.29 million vehicles last year, up 1.1 percent year-on-year. In the German market, Volkswagen sales rose 17.5 percent to 1.24 million units, 160,000 less than its China numbers. The German automaker posted a sales growth of 36.7 percent and sold one quarter of its cars in China. For the first time, China surpassed Germany to become Volkswagen's largest single market.

In the following three years, the German auto group will invest more than €4 billion in the world's largest auto market to expand the Nanjing plant and Chengdu facility and launch new products, said Volkswagen China's CEO Winfried Vahland. This investment promises to be the biggest for China's automobile industry. About 20 new or modified models are scheduled to be launched by Volkswagen, according to Vahland.

Volkswagen was the first multinational automaker to enter the Chinese market when it set up a 50:50 JV with FAW in 1978. Shanghai-Volkswagen, a joint venture between SAIC and Volkswagen, had the highest sales volume in China in 2009.