Volkswagen Says Worldwide Sales Up 9.7% in First Nine Months

Volkswagen AG (IW 1000/10) said it sold 6.71 million vehicles worldwide in the nine months to September, an increase of 9.7% over the year-earlier period.

In September alone, VW booked a 6.5% increase in worldwide sales to 801,000, according to the automaker.

"Our worldwide deliveries grew further in September with a particularly strong performance in Central and Eastern Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region," said VW sales and marketing chief Christian Klingler.

"However, the present uncertain situation in the eurozone and current overall market conditions require close monitoring and will be receiving our full attention in the fourth quarter as well," Klingler cautioned.

European sales edged up only 0.8% to 2.8 million vehicles in the period from January to September, with sales in western Europe dropping 6% to 1.43 million units.

As well as its own VW brand, Volkswagen also owns luxury brand Audi, the sports carmaker Porsche, the Czech brand Skoda and SEAT in Spain.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012