While an overall positive market will results in car sales rising by 15-16 percent this year in Hungary, brands of the Volkswagen Group are somewhat behind with an expected increased of about 5-6 percent, Porsche Hungária CEO János Eppel said at a press conference.
The main reasons are that among other carmakers, Volkswagen had problems in certifying its engine production to meet the new WLTP (World Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure) emission standard and the controversial reports regarding the emission of diesel engines.
Even so, sales of the group’s Skoda brand rose by 9.5 percent mainly driven by corporate fleet purchases which accounted for 83 percent of all Skoda sales. Among private buyers Seat was the most popular brand, whose sales rose by 26 percent due to the popularity of its urban SUV models.
Eppel said sales of the group’s luxury brand Audi were the hardest-hit by the new WLTP standard, but only said they expected sales of around 2,400 units this year, without giving comparative figures for 2017.
The Volkswagen Group also has an Audi engine plant in Győr, western Hungary which supplies engines for the Skoda, Seat and Volkswagen brands which had an output of 1,965,165 engines in 2017.
