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Global deliveries of Volkswagen's (VW) biggest autos division
declined 2.7 percent, the 16th drop in the past 18 months,
extending the fall in first-quarter sales to 1.3 percent or 1.46
million cars, Europe's largest automaker said on Friday.
The decline last month was less severe than a 4.7 percent fall
in February, but contrasted with a 5.7 percent rise in total car
sales by all brands in Europe in March..
VW brand models exclude Audi and Porsche sales data, which VW is
due to release later on Friday.
Analysts have said customer faith in VW's namesake brand has
been hurt by a stalled German vehicle recall and a stop sale of
diesel models in the United States where seven months into the
scandal, VW still lacks a technical fix for almost 600,000 cars.
Demand for VW brand models dropped 2 percent in the core Western
European region last month and 10 percent in the United States,
where the emissions scandal broke, but was up 3.6 percent in
China, VW's biggest market, VW said.
Chinese sales were subdued though compared with those of German
luxury carmakers Mercedes, owned by Daimler <DAIGn.DE>, and BMW
<BMWG.DE>, which saw sales in the world's biggest car market
surge last month.
Failure to bring its U.S. diesel models into line with
environmental standards has undermined VW's efforts to put a
price on the emissions scandal and delayed its annual results.
The carmaker's supervisory board is due to approve 2015 earnings
and discuss the potential costs of the scandal on April 22, a
day after a deadline for VW and U.S. regulators to agree a
solution for manipulated U.S. cars expires.
(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Christoph Steitz and
Susan Fenton)
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