The VW Group earned a lot from the growing car sales

The VW Group emerged from the Corona crisis with momentum in the first half of the year and earned a lot from the growing car sales. For the period from January to June, the Wolfsburg-based company reported an operating result of around 11 billion euros on the basis of preliminary figures. With this key figure, the largest European car group is already above the value for the entire year 2020, in which it had an operating profit of a good 10.6 billion euros before special items. The surprisingly published key data are mainly fed by the rising demand. Increased deliveries led to "very high sales" in the first half of the year, it said. The recovery was - based on the weak period of the previous year with the global spread of the pandemic - "continued strong". Especially during the lockdown in the second quarter of 2020, closed car dealerships, temporarily completely shut down plants and unsettled customers in many countries had left the group in the deep red. Before special items, the half-year loss in ongoing business at that time totaled 803 million euros. After the home market of Western Europe had also weakened initially, sales of the VW Group rose significantly across the board of late. In May, around 860,000 cars sold worldwide accounted for a 41 percent increase over the same month last year. Deliveries in Europe roughly doubled, and in North America the group reported an increase of 83 percent. For the important US market, there are already more detailed figures for the second quarter. The Wolfsburg-based company sold more than 120,000 new vehicles from its core brand VW Passenger Cars, an increase of 72 percent. VW now spoke of the best sales result in a quarter since 1973. Audi managed to grow to almost 67,000 units, almost double the value for the United States in the second quarter of 2020. The fears of a prolonged downturn in the entire auto industry after the Corona low at the beginning to the middle of last year have so far not come true, as have others providers earn well again.