VW sales rise at highest rate in 14 months

Volkswagen over the weekend posted the strongest monthly gain in group vehicle sales in March in more than a year, benefiting from recovering demand in core European markets that helped outweigh falling sales in the US and Brazil.

VW group deliveries, excluding the Scania and MAN heavy-truck nameplates, rose 7.6 percent last month to 929,500 vehicles, the strongest growth rate since January 2013.

First-quarter sales were up 5.8 percent at a record 2.4 million cars. The company also posted a 14.5 percent gain in China, its largest market, to 880,700 autos.

VW said its western European sales were up 8.2 percent between January and March at 516,600 cars, while deliveries rose 7.9 percent to 282,800 in Germany.

In the US, where a new leadership at VW is seeking to revitalize an aging model line-up, first-quarter deliveries fell 6.5 percent to 133,500 cars and plunged by a fifth in Brazil to 127,700.

VW expects to meet its 7-year-old target to increase group sales to over 10 million cars a year in 2014, four years earlier than planned.