Volkswagen of America, Inc. (VWoA) today reported 36,957 units delivered in June, a 3.2 percent decrease over prior year sales. While Volkswagen’s sales pace was anticipated to moderate this year, the company has achieved significant, double-digit growth over the past few years. Comparing year-to-date June 2013 sales to June 2011, the company attained a growth rate of over 30 percent.
“Volkswagen achieved a number of sales milestones in June, including our best-ever TDI Clean Diesel sales, a strong indication of our leadership in this area and growing consumer demand for our fuel efficient technologies,” said Jonathan Browning, President and CEO Volkswagen Group of America. “While we are cautious in terms of the economic outlook, we expect our sales pace to remain steady in the second-half of the year as we gear up for our Model Year 2014 vehicle introductions with significant updates.”
The Chattanooga-built Passat continued to deliver strong results with 10,874 units delivered. The TDI® Clean Diesel Passat made history in June when it set a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS® achievement for the “lowest fuel consumption—48 U.S. states for a non-hybrid car” category with a stellar 77.99 mpg — more than 10 mpg better. The achievement also beats the hybrid vehicle record of 64.6 mpg by more than 13 mpg. Over 30 percent of the Passat’s sold in June were TDI® Clean Diesels.
Total Jetta deliveries (including SportWagen) for June accounted for 14,813 units, up 8.9 percent over last year. The Jetta Turbo Hybrid continues to attract consumer interest with 438 deliveries in June.
Total Beetle deliveries for June were 3,780 units, a 29.7 percent increase versus the prior year.
Total sales of the Golf (including Golf R and GTI) were 2,602 units. The Tiguan and Touareg sold 2,452 and 642 units respectively.
Volkswagen’s high-mileage, TDI® Clean Diesel models accounted for 24.3 percent of sales in June, and 22.1 percent year-to-date, the best June and year-to-date results ever.
In June, Volkswagen was honored to receive three awards from the Cannes Lion Festival, including a Silver Lion in the Branded Content category for a Shark Week video, a Bronze Lion in the Film Lions category for the “Baby” commercial and a Bronze Lion in the Media Lions category for the “Shark Cage” video.
Continuing its commitment to the United States market and strengthening its infrastructure, the Volkswagen Group celebrated the grand opening of a $40 million distribution center in Roane County, Tenn. The facility will be used for distributing domestic auto parts to global markets for the Chattanooga-made Passat and will later serve as a domestic distribution center for Volkswagen and Audi service parts. The operation will help improve service parts delivery times to over 110 dealers in the surrounding regions. The company also announced that the facility was certified LEED Silver, making it the 6th Volkswagen facility in the United States to receive LEED certification by the US Green Building Council. Volkswagen Group plans to invest more than $5 billion in North America over the next three years in new products, technologies and infrastructure aimed at helping the company reach its long-term goals for the region.