Sales of VW products in China stalled in January through March as a Covid resurgence and ongoing supply chain disruptions affect manufacturing in the company’s largest market, reports the Financial Times. Deliveries in China fell by almost 24% in the three months to the end of March, which VW said was because of “ongoing global structural semiconductor bottlenecks and pandemic restrictions in various cities across China since the beginning of the year.”
VW brand Porsche, which the group hopes to partially float later this year, suffered a 20% drop in China deliveries. The latest VW figures come after the Covid lockdown in Shanghai was widened to include nearby Kunshan, where several key electronics manufacturers are based.
VW has been directly affected by outbreaks in Changchun and Shanghai, the locations of its joint ventures in China, while a fifth of its dealerships in the country were forced to close in March because of the virus. That situation has meant that VW is “temporarily unable to meet high customer demand”, China boss Stephan Wöllenstein said, adding that he hoped VW would “be able to make up for the delay in production in the coming months”, once the economy reopened.
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