Germany's Volkswagen, Europe's biggest automaker, gained 2.9 percent in July to 572,200 vehicles world-wide, it said on August 13. In the seven-month period from January through July, the VW group sold more than four million vehicles, the first time it has made that many, it added.
"After a very successful first six months we got off to a good start in the second half of the year," VW sales director Christian Klingler said in a statement.
He nonetheless also voiced some caution by adding that outperforming the competition for the rest of the year "will be a challenge, given an operating environment that is again becoming difficult."
VW also would not regain this year levels seen prior to the global economic crisis, Klinger said.
The group's fortunes mirror those of Germany as a whole as Europe's biggest economy posted stellar second quarter growth of 2.2 percent on August 13, in part owing to strong auto exports.
It was the country's best quarterly result since east and west Germany were reunified in 1990. VW, which also owns the Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche, Seat and Skoda brands, aims to surpass Toyota as the world's biggest automaker by 2018.
A key part of the plan is China, the group's biggest market and where deliveries in the first seven months of the year jumped 42.2 percent to 1.11 million.
For Asia as a whole, VW posted growth of 42.3 percent to 1.23 million units.