Staff Reporter
Volkswagen has confirmed the launch of updated VW Polo by end of January and VW Polo Vivo by March this year. The announcement was made as Volkswagen South Africa celebrates the high sales of both the Polo and Polo Vivo during 2017.
“The Polo Vivo and Polo remained the first and second best-selling passenger cars in 2017, which is also for the seventh consecutive year – this is an incredible achievement for the Volkswagen brand considering that we effectively ran out of supply in December of the key models which is illustrated by the unusually low 14.8 percent market share we achieved in December,” said Volkswagen Group South Africa (VWSA) Chairman and Managing Director Thomas Schaefer.
Since the introduction of the Polo and Polo Vivo in 2010, the brand has been passenger market leader every year. The Volkswagen Group ended the year with 80,308 sales giving VWSA a total market share of 21.8 percent, with the Volkswagen brand achieving 18.9 percent share in a run-out year of its volume models. To top the successful year, the Volkswagen brand on its own is the market leader for 2017.
Audi, the cousin to the VW, improved its year-on-year share by 1.2 percent despite very tough trading conditions in the premium market and delivered a passenger market share of 2.9 percent, placing the brand in third place in the premium market with a total share of 18.7 percent. Despite a year-on-year decline of 12.7 percent in the premium market, Audi’s share of the premium market only declined by 6.8 percent.
“I am delighted by the performance of both the Volkswagen and Audi brands in 2017 and know that we will do even better in 2018,” said Schaefer.