Volkswagen is feeling the effects of the continuing market weakness in China and sold slightly fewer cars in the first half of the year than a year ago.

At 4.35 million vehicles, total deliveries were slightly below the previous year's level of 4.37 million, as the company announced on Wednesday. Growth in North America, South America and Western Europe almost offset the declines in China in particular. Head of Sales Hildegard Wortmann spoke of a very intense competitive environment in the People's Republic. A spokesperson put the discounts offered by competitors at up to 50 percent in some cases; in return, Volkswagen has always made it clear that profitability has top priority.

However, sales of electric cars were worse: in the first half of the year, sales fell to 317,200 cars from 321,600 vehicles a year ago. These vehicles were less in demand in Europe and the USA in particular, while business in China picked up. However, the Group is expecting additional momentum in the second half of the year from new models such as the Audi Q6 e-tron and the Porsche Macan.

Wortmann is confident that it will achieve its sales target for the year as a whole. Due to the start-up and ramp-up of numerous important models, a slight increase in global deliveries compared to the previous year is still expected. Among other things, several new plug-in hybrid cars will be launched on the market.

(Report by Christina Amann, edited by Myria Mildenberger. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at Berlin.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or Frankfurt.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets)