Volkswagen rode growing crossover demand to total U.S. sales of 90,853 — up 21 percent — in the first quarter. The addition of the Atlas Cross Sport and ID4 offset a 13 percent slide in car volume at the VW brand. Meanwhile, Audi sales rose 33 percent in the quarter to 54,840 on growth from its crossover lineup.
Brands: VW, up 21%; Audi, up 33%; Porsche, up 45%
Notable nameplates: VW Atlas, up 35%; Tiguan, up 23%; Jetta, up 6.2%; Audi Q5, up 48%; Q7, up 24%; A6, up 25%; E-tron, up 103%
Incentives (including Porsche): $4,100 per vehicle, down 8.9% from a year earlier, TrueCar says
Average transaction price (including Porsche): $44,496, up 8.5% from a year earlier, according to TrueCar
Quote: “You’re going to see a retail market ahead of 2019 because that trend is baked in now, and it was accentuated in March. We got a particularly strong push on the back of some of the stimulus money and other effects that really drove a very, very robust retail market,” said Duncan Movassaghi, executive vice president for sales and marketing at Volkswagen of America.
Did you know? VW’s lineup of four crossovers represented a record 64 percent of the brand’s total U.S. sales in the first quarter, up from 23 percent of volume in 2017. VW said March was its best single month in the U.S. since 2012, while Audi said deliveries set a record for the first quarter.