BERLIN, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Volkswagen group sold over 2.6 million vehicles in the first quarter of 2019, a decline of 2.8 percent compared to the first quarter of last year, the company announced on Friday.
The first quarter "was challenging as expected," said Christian Dahlheim, head of Volkswagen Group sales.
In March 2019, Volkswagen delivered 998,900 vehicles to customers around the world, which was a 4.3 percent decline compared to the same month last year, when the German car manufacturer sold 1,043,400 cars.
Overall, the decline of 9.9 percent in the Asia-Pacific region and 10.2 percent in South America could not be made up for by better sales in Europe and North America where sales increased by 0.6 and 3.6 percent respectively.
Nonetheless, Volkswagen was "somewhat more optimistic about the second half of the year in particular," concluded Dahlheim.
