Meanwhile deliveries in December were up 3.3% to 535,200 units.

Group Board Member for Sales Christian Klingler said: ‘There has been further growth for the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand in spite of the challenging market conditions. Our new Golf in particular has done extremely well in its first full year on the market and has strengthened Volkswagen’s competitive position.’

Conditions remained difficult in Europe, where the brand delivered 1.64 million vehicles, down 3.7%. Central and Eastern Europe saw deliveries of 263,300 units, down 1.4% whilst Russia was down 5.1% to 156,300. Deliveries in Western Europe (excluding Germany) were down 3.9% to 811,800 units. In its home market the brand fell 4.4% to 560,100 units.

In contrast, in the Asia-Pacific region the brand saw a 15.0% increase in deliveries for the full year, handing over 2.73 million vehicles to customers, of which 2.51 (+16.6 percent) million were delivered in China (incl. Hong Kong), the region’s largest single market.

In the US, Volkswagen handed over 407,700 units, down 6.9%, while the figure of 720,400 units in South America was down 13.9%, of which 550,800 units were delivered to customers in Brazil, down 16.7%.

Looking to the year ahead, Mr Klinger said: ‘We will be facing new and difficult challenges in 2014, but we are very well prepared thanks to our young and sustainable product range.’