VW China deliveries drop 26% to 14-year low on EV shift
Volkswagen's Chinese deliveries plunged to their lowest level since 2010, dragging global sales down 6% and underscoring the automaker's struggle against domestic electric vehicle manufacturers.
Volkswagen handed over just 971,000 vehicles in China during the first half of the year, a 26.1% plunge from the same period in 2023. This delivery volume marks the German manufacturer’s weakest first-half performance in the market since 2010, when it sold 950,300 units. The scale of the drop points to a profound shift in the competitive landscape for legacy European brands.
The company is steadily losing ground to domestic EV rivals that are aggressively capturing consumer demand. Volkswagen operates in China through three joint ventures with local partners, a traditional structure that once guaranteed dominance. However, this established network has failed to insulate the carmaker from a rapid technological and pricing disruption driven by local manufacturers offering competitive electric vehicles.
“The situation in China remains challenging, where we were unable to escape a significant total market decline of around 20 per cent,” said Marco Schubert, a member of Volkswagen’s extended executive committee for sales. A 20% broader market contraction certainly explains a portion of the volume drop. Nevertheless, Volkswagen’s 26.1% decline indicates the automaker is surrendering ground to competitors at a faster rate than the overall industry is shrinking.
The reliance on China as a primary volume driver means these localized struggles immediately impair the group's global throughput. Regional recoveries elsewhere were simply not robust enough to compensate for the Asian shortfall. Deliveries in South America grew 8%, while western Europe posted a 3% increase, but these gains only partially offset the significant decline in China.
As a result, Volkswagen’s global deliveries fell 6% from a year earlier, finishing the first half at 4.13 million units. For investors, the data reinforces a stark reality: the automaker's global volume and margin recovery is heavily anchored to its ability to compete in China. Until Volkswagen can effectively counter the threat of domestic electric vehicle makers, its global earnings will remain highly vulnerable to continued share loss in its most important single market.
