Prof Dr Martin Winterkorn, chairman of Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, said: ‘In 2014, our Group delivered over ten million vehicles in total to customers, ranging from the e-up! city car to heavy commercial vehicles. That is impressive confirmation we are vigorously implementing our Strategy 2018 despite challenging market conditions. We are also making good progress with our other main goals – return on sales, customer satisfaction and top employer.’

Deliveries in Europe saw a rise of 5.1% to a total of 3.95 million vehicles, with Western European deliveries (excluding Germany) up 7.2% to 2.03m. In its home market, the group reported deliveries of 1.24 million vehicles, up 4.5%. And in Central and Eastern Europe, the group handed over 670,900 vehicles, up 0.4%.

Deliveries were also up in North America by 0.2% to 891,900 vehicles but fell by 19.8% in South America to 795,700 units. And in the Asia-Pacific region, annual deliveries topped the four-million mark for the first time, reaching over 4.06 million vehicles, up 11.3%.

Notable performances were put in by Volkswagen Passenger Cars, which topped the six-million mark for the first time, and Audi, which delivered 1.74 (million vehicles to customers worldwide in 2014, an increase of 10.5%.

Meanwhile Skoda delivered over one million units worldwide for the first time in the period from January to December 2014, handing over 1.04 million vehicles to customers, a year-on-year increase of 12.7%.

And SEAT delivered 390,500 vehicles worldwide in the period to December 2014, a year-on-year rise of 10.0%.

However, the Group’s three commercial vehicles brands, MAN, Scania and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, all saw a decline, with overall deliveries of 646,500 heavy and light commercial vehicles worldwide in 2014 down 5.4%.