Volkswagen China's sales up 21.1% in April

May 21, 2009 (China Knowledge) - Volkswagen AG, world's third-largest automaker, said on Tuesday that its vehicle sales hit a monthly record of 121,300 units in China in April, a surge of 21.1% year on year, sources reported.

The German auto maker said in a statement that the Chinese auto market shows signs of recovery.

The company's global vehicle sales, however, declined 4.7% to 541,600 units in April. The auto maker sold 339,500 units under its core Volkswagen brand, up 1.3%.

The company said the global auto market fell about 20% during the same period,

Its first-quarter sales in China hit 284,143 vehicles in the first quarter, representing a year-on-year growth of 5.94% from the previous year, the company said last month.

The company said that the development of China's passenger car market was better than expected in the first quarter and that it has benefited from the growth trend. It has revised its sales target for 2009 in the Chinese market and plans to increase its output capacity by 50,000 units.

China's monthly vehicle sales hit a record high of 1.15 million units in April, up 25% year on year, according to figures released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). In the first four months of this year, passenger car sales increased 15.09% from a year earlier to about 2.83 million units.