Strong growth in Latin America helped VW's commercial vehicles subsidiary Traton to almost stable truck and bus sales last year.

The holding company sold 334,200 (2023: 338,200) trucks and buses worldwide through MAN and Scania, one percent less than a year earlier, as Traton announced on Tuesday. In particular, the Scania brand (up six percent) and the South American Volkswagen Truck & Bus (up 23 percent) benefited from the strong economy in Brazil and other countries in the region. By contrast, MAN Truck & Bus, which is particularly strong in Europe, slid by 18 percent due to the weak economy in Germany.

Rival Daimler Truck had reported a 12 percent drop in sales to 460,400 trucks and buses due to a slump in sales in Europe and Asia, putting it at the lower end of its own expectations for 2024.

Electric trucks continue to play a minor role at Traton. A total of 1,740 fully electric trucks were sold worldwide, 18 percent fewer than in 2023. Daimler Truck, on the other hand, increased its sales of electric vehicles by 17 percent to 4,035 last year.

(Report by Alexander Huebner. Edited by Olaf Brenner. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and economics) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)