In February, the Volkswagen (VW) Group handed 724,400 vehicles over to customers world-wide; and while this number was 1.8% below the total for February 2018, VW won market share in a shrinking market in most regions, although in the largest single market of China, deliveries fell by 7.4% year-on-year.

Christian Dahlheim, head of VW Group sales, said: “In February, the Volkswagen Group delivered slightly fewer vehicles than last year, but we were able to gain market shares in a shrinking overall market.

“Despite the market environment, which continues to be challenging as expected, we have continued our solid start to the new year.

"With our broad-based product offensive, we are confident that we will once again record a slight increase in deliveries this year, particularly as the brands of the VW Group will launch over 90 new models in 2019.”

In Europe, the VW Group brands delivered a total of 334,400 vehicles in February 2019, up 1.1% on the same month last year. In the home market of Germany, group brands recorded a 3.6% growth, with 105,500 vehicles delivered.

In North America, deliveries fell by 5.8% to 65,200 vehicles; in the USA, the group recorded 44,400 deliveries, a drop of 5.1% compared with February 2018.

In the Asia-Pacific region, the VW Group delivered 257,100 vehicles, a fall of 7.3%; in the most important single market — China — 234,400 customers took delivery of a new vehicle from a group brand, some 7.4% fewer than in February 2018.

The group comprises 12 brands: Volks-wagen Passenger Cars, Audi, Seat, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati, VW Commercial Vehicles, Scania and MAN.

The passenger car portfolio ranges from small cars to luxury-class vehicles, while Ducati offers motorcycles. In the light and heavy commercial-vehicles sector, the products include pick-ups, buses and heavy trucks.