By Dominic Chopping
Deliveries of Volkswagen-branded vehicles in 2025 fell 1.4% on year as the market environment in China remained challenging while U.S. tariffs hit demand in North America.
The brand delivered around 4.73 million vehicles globally last year, as growth in Europe and South America failed to offset an 8.4% drop in China deliveries and an 8.2% decline in North America.
Intense competition in China has sparked a prolonged price war as rivals cut prices to win customers while local consumers have moved to tech-heavy domestic models.
"We expect the market environment to remain challenging overall in 2026," said Martin Sander, Volkswagen board member for sales, marketing and after sales.
"I firmly believe that thanks to our refreshed, attractive product portfolio and our clear focus on efficiency and competitiveness we are very well equipped to rise to this challenge."
The company said that demand for electric vehicles is holding up, with Volkswagen delivering approximately 382,000 all-electric vehicles worldwide in 2025, a 0.2% drop on year. The share of all-electric vehicles relative to total deliveries stood at 8.1%.
Volkswagen expects demand for its electric vehicles to rise in the current year as it rolls out new all-electric models, and the brand said it will be bringing out more than 10 new electric models in China this year.
Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
01-13-26 0318ET
