The first six months of the year, the brand delivered 2.91 million vehicles worldwide on the figure of 2.79 million for the same period in 2012.

In Europe, deliveries were down 7.1% for the first half to 843,600, with a 7.9% drop in Western Europe (excluding Germany) to 427,800.

Deliveries on the home market of Germany were down 8.5% to 283,400 new vehicles, while the figure for central and Eastern Europe fell 1.2% to 132,400 and dropped 4.7% to 77,300 to Russia.

By contrast, the brand grew deliveries by 17.3% in the Asia-Pacific region in the first half year, with deliveries up 19.4% to 1.17 million units in China (incl. Hong Kong). In India, on the other hand, deliveries dropped 12.6% to 31,800 units.

In the North America region, Volkswagen Passenger Cars grew deliveries by 3.9% to 307,000 units, of which 206,800 models were handed over to customers in the USA – a drop of 0.9%. In the South America region, deliveries from January to June decreased by 7.5% to 361,600 units, of which 272,100 were handed over in Brazil, down 7.3%.

The brand handed over 501,000 vehicles to customers in the month of June, up 0.5%.

Christian Klingler, VW sales chief, said: ‘Developments at Volkswagen Passenger Cars in the first six months were stable thanks to the brand’s convincing model range. The new Golf in particular has met with an excellent response from our customers. So far, we have already delivered well over 250,000 new Golfs to customers worldwide. And the new Golf Variant will generate further momentum.’

He added: ‘At the same time, though, the challenges on difficult global markets, especially the considerable uncertainties in Europe, will undoubtedly continue to have a significant impact in the second half of the year.’