Trends in the markets for commercial vehicles

In the markets for mid-sized and heavy trucks that are relevant for the Volkswagen Group, new registrations in 2019 are set to be slightly up on the level seen in 2018. We anticipate a solid increase for the period from 2020 to 2023.

We assume that demand in Western Europe will taper off moderately year-on-year in 2019. In Germany, we expect the market to decline slightly compared to the previous year.

Central and Eastern European markets should record a moderate increase in demand. In Russia we expect to see a marked rebound in demand in 2019.

We assume that demand in the South America region will pick up perceptibly in 2019.

In the bus markets that are relevant for the Volkswagen Group, we anticipate a slight increase in demand in 2019 compared with the prior-year level. We forecast moderate growth for the market in Western Europe in the same period. In Central and Eastern Europe, we anticipate a slight drop in demand. In South America, new registrations will probably be moderately higher than the prior-year level.

For the period 2020 to 2023, we expect noticeable growth overall in the demand for buses in the markets that are relevant for the Volkswagen Group.