Frankfurt Auto Show Update - VW says August brand sales down 3-4 pct

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FRANKFURT, Sept 8, 2003; Reuters reported that Volkswagen AG, Europe's biggest car maker, on Monday said sales of its core VW brand were three to four percent lower in August compared with the same month last year.

"In August we were about three to four percent down on last year worldwide," VW board member Detlef Wittig told reporters at an event ahead of the Frankfurt international motor show.

VW is launching the new version of its Golf -- the second most popular car in the world after Toyota's Corolla -- at the show, a model it hopes will reverse its fortunes after a year of sliding profits.

VW Chief Executive Bernd Pischetsrieder said the group expected to sell around 700,000 VW brand cars in Germany in 2004.

"We have a market share of around 20 percent and we want to hold on to that. That means sales of around 700,000," he said, repeating that he expected the German market as a whole to see sales of around 3.5 million cars next year.

Pischetsrieder said the VW brand had lifted its market share in Germany in the first eight months of the year to 18.3 percent from 18.2 percent in the period a year earlier.

He said the VW group as whole -- which includes the Audi, SEAT, and Skoda brands -- had seen its market share in Germany rise to 30.1 percent in the first eight months of the year from 29.6 percent in the same period a year earlier.

VW has said operating profit this year will not match last year's 4.76 billion euros ($5.27 billion), due largely to the cost of overhauling a stale product range. It is launching a new or updated car somewhere in the world every three weeks this year.

VW hopes to sell at least 600,000 of the new Golf V models next year and says each one will earn it more money than its predecessor. The car traditionally accounts for more than a third of unit sales and around half of profits at the VW brand.