Volkswagen Group underperformed in the Chinese market in the first nine months with local production severely contained by the global semiconductor chip crunch.
The group’s China deliveries dropped 4.1 percent from a year earlier to some 2.55 million units through September, the German auto giant said.
By contrast, the overall Chinese market for light vehicles including sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multipurpose vehicles and minibuses advanced 11 percent to approach 14.86 million vehicles over the same period.
In the first three quarters, gains at the German group’s luxury brands offset declines at its volume marques.
Audi sales rose 9.9 percent to 563,600 while Porsche deliveries jumped 11 percent to 69,800.
But volume of the flagship Volkswagen brand declined 5 percent to below 1.86 million, while deliveries at Skoda tumbled 58 percent to 52,700.
Despite the latest declines, VW remained the top carmaker in China by sales in the first nine months.
General Motors, the second-largest passenger vehicle manufacturer, booked deliveries of 2.15 million vehicles, an increase of 11 percent from a year earlier.
VW didn’t disclose China sales results for the third quarter.