Sales will decline significantly in 2020: VW is still making a strong final spurt in the US

Wednesday, January 06, 2021

Sales will decrease significantly in 2020
VW is still making a strong final spurt in the US

In the US business, Volkswagen is doing very well in the last quarter, but overall the Corona year 2020 will also bring unpleasant figures for the German carmaker: sales are falling significantly. Many competitors are hit harder.

Volkswagen significantly increased its sales on the US market in the fourth quarter. In the three months to the end of December, the company said it brought 94,330 cars with the VW logo to customers, eleven percent more than in the same period last year. The SUV segment with the coveted Atlas model boosted sales strongly, while demand for smaller vehicles weakened.

Overall, business suffered considerably from the pandemic in the past calendar year – with 325,784 cars sold, sales fell by ten percent compared to the previous year. With that, however, the Wolfsburg-based company fared significantly better in the USA than some other manufacturers. At BMW, for example, sales fell by 17.5 percent to 278,732 vehicles for the year as a whole. In the final quarter there was a two percent decrease to 98,750 cars. The secondary brand Mini suffered even greater losses, with a year-on-year decline of 22 percent.

GM expects a turnaround soon

In addition to VW, the winners of the past quarter also included the largest US car manufacturer General Motors (GM). A total of 771,323 vehicles were sold, around five percent more than in the same period last year, the company announced in Detroit. The share reacted with significant price gains to the surprisingly strong quarterly result.

Nevertheless, the corona crisis weighed heavily on business last year. Overall, General Motors' sales in 2020 fell by almost twelve percent to a good 2.5 million cars. In view of increasing corona vaccinations and warmer weather, GM chief economist Elaine Buckberg gave an optimistic outlook. The US economy should reach its turning point in the spring.

The Italian-American heavyweight Fiat Chrysler had a hard time at the end of the year, with sales falling eight percent to 499,431 in the last quarter. In total, the group got rid of around 1.8 million new vehicles in 2020, which corresponds to a decrease of 17 percent compared to the previous year. The second largest US manufacturer Ford wants to present its sales figures only today.