Volkswagen: A True Car for the People?

Volkswagen's quarterly results didn't live up to analysts' expectations, with the world's second-biggest car manufacturer generating an operating profit of $3.3 billion instead of the $3.5 billion projected by data service provider Refinitiv. This not only marks a 12 percent year-over-year decline but is also symptomatic of the ongoing semiconductor crisis influencing a slew of industries around the world. Still, the brand stays popular in some of its key markets, as our chart indicates.

According to data from our Statista Global Consumer Survey, 17 percent of Germans and Austrians who own a car rely on a Volkswagen to get them where they need to be. When taking a look at the whole Volkswagen group, Germany stayed the second biggest market with 750,000 passenger cars delivered to customers in the third quarter behind China with 2.5 million. These figures include Volkswagen brands like Audi, Škoda, Seat or Porsche, which explains the disparity between our survey and the official numbers. So while the U.S. is situated in third place with 500,000 Volkswagen group cars delivered in Q3, only one percent of respondents said they own a Volkswagen. The figures South Africa, Brazil and Mexico, on the other hand, correlate with the survey findings, with 11 percent in the Central American country claiming they own a Volkswagen and 100,000 units being delivered this past quarter.

In 2020, the Volkswagen group led the automotive industry in revenue generated with roughly $254 billion, followed by Toyota with $249 billion and Daimler with $176 billion according to data from Forbes. How those figures will look like for 2021 in light of the ongoing chip crisis remains to be seen, although Volkswagen remains cautious concerning its forecast for the rest of the year: "The risk of bottlenecks and disruptions in the supply of semiconductor components has intensified across the entire industry. Their adverse impact has been seen especially since the second half of the year, prompting us to lower our forecast for deliveries to customers."