VW leads passenger car market

Volkswagen South Africa continues to make a positive comeback in the local car market after reeling from the effects of Level 5 lockdown earlier this year.“Even though we won't see a repeat of our record-breaking 2019 volumes, we have made incremental volume gains and posted a record year-to-date market share thanks to a strong performance from our dealer network,” said Mike Glendinning, sales and marketing director for Volkswagen Group South Africa (VWSA). In the first 10 months of 2020, Volkswagen sold 42 354 passenger vehicles in the local market. The passenger car market is down year-on-year by 33.3% and Volkswagen's sales showed a 29% year-on-year decline. Volkswagen's passenger car market share increased by 1.1% to 21.5% when compared to October 2019's figure of 20.4%.“This year has been challenging for all South Africans and as a brand that has been in the local market for close to 70 years, we invested back into our communities by heralding the Drive Local campaign,” Glendinning pointed out. “The Drive Local campaign saw us building a field hospital to assist Covid-19 patients in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, using our employees' technical expertise to manufacture medical equipment as well as supporting vulnerable communities through funding Non-Profit Organisations”, he said.“The Drive Local campaign urged people to champion proudly South African products and services. For our brand the results are evident in the sales and market share figures we recorded in the first 10 months of this year,” added Glendinning.The locally-manufactured Polo Vivo is Volkswagen's best-selling range with 15 494 units sold in 2020. With just a little over a year since being launched in South Africa, the T-Cross is now the brand's best-selling imported vehicle with 3 965 units sold in the first 10 months of 2020.TradeThe Volkswagen plant in Uitenhage showed strong export figures during the first 10 months of 2020, despite the impact of the Level 5 national lockdown which halted production. To date, the Uitenhage plant has exported a total of 68 232 locally-manufactured Polos to both left and right-hand drive markets. Of the 10 months, October delivered the highest number with 10 576 vehicles exported.“Though our export numbers are lower than in some previous years, this performance is testament to the commitment and perseverance of VWSA and each of its employees,” said Bernd Schaberg, acting production director.“We have recovered from a low point of zero exports in April to a steady performance in the months that followed. Our priority for the rest of 2020 is to continue building on this growth by manufacturing quality vehicles – in the safest way possible for our employees,” concluded Schaberg.“As a brand, we want to finish 2020 strong. Later this month, we will launch the newest derivative in the T SUV range, the T-Roc. Sales of one of South Africa's most powerful double cab bakkies, the Amarok 190kW, will also start this month,” concluded Glendinning. - MotorPress

VW leads passenger car market

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-02

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VW leads passenger car market

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-02

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