Volkswagen on Tuesday said it had sold 10.3 million cars world-wide last year, a new record for the German auto giant, despite grappling with a massive emissions cheating scandal. The VW group, which also includes the brands Audi, Porsche and Skoda, saw sales increase by 3.8 percent on the year, pushing it back over the magical 10-million mark after slipping to 9.93 million in 2015.
The results come as the company's "dieselgate" crisis is back in the spotlight following the arrest this week of a VW executive in Miami who stands accused of helping to cover up the scandal. The scandal erupted in September 2015 when Volkswagen, under pressure from US authorities, admitted to installing software in 11 million diesel cars world-wide that could dupe pollution tests.
The cheating technology allowed the cars to pass the emissions tests but release up to 40 times the permitted amounts of nitrogen oxides during actual driving. The scandal harmed Volkswagen's reputation and sent its share price plunging, but customers appear to have largely shrugged off the controversy.
Volkswagen has responded to the crisis with a management shake-up and by shifting its focus to clean-energy vehicles, setting out to be the world's leader in electric cars by 2025. "2016 was a very challenging year for us. We made strides in resolving and overcoming the diesel crisis and at the same time initiated a fundamental change process," chief executive Matthias Mueller said in a statement.
Group sales were driven by strong growth in China, where deliveries were up 12 percent. Europe saw growth of four percent. In the United States, where customers have taken mass legal action to secure compensation from Volkswagen, sales were down 2.8 percent over the year. In South America, sales plummeted by nearly a quarter.