German car giant Volkswagen, on Friday, said that the outbreak of coronavirus in China and the Lunar New Year holiday led to a sharp drop in vehicle deliveries in January.
The Wolfsburg-based firm said in the firm’s single most important market, Volkswagen Group deliveries, including all the carmaker’s brands, were down by 11.3 per cent compared to the same month in 2019.
It, however, delivered 343,000 vehicles in January.
The impact of the virus also dragged down Volkswagen deliveries worldwide, which sank by 5.2 per cent to 838,900 units. China accounts on average for 40 per cent of Volkswagen’s deliveries.
Meanwhile, car sales in China as a whole sank by about a fifth in January, with the ongoing virus crisis expected to cause significant disruption though in the first months of the year