Volkswagen Financial Services expects outstandings to grow about 5.8% worldwide for 2015, despite the VW diesel emissions scandal, which surfaced in September and cut into sales.
The captive forecasts around 13.1 million loan and lease contracts at yearend. VWFS had “excellent business performance until late summer of this year,” the lender said in a written statement in December.
“In financial terms, we expect to achieve an operating result above the previous year’s level,” said Lars Henner Santelmann, chairman of VWFS. “Nevertheless, we are affected by the current emission issues faced by the Volkswagen Group.”
The OEM admitted it equipped some diesel models with software designed to cheat on emissions tests. Since the scandal broke, ratings agencies have downgraded credit ratings for VW and its captive.
In the United States, VW Credit expects to have 1.2 million loans and leases outstanding at yearend, up about 7% from 2014, a company spokeswoman told AFN on Dec. 30.
VW brand sales in the U.S. market were down 24.7% in November from a year ago, according to Autodata Corp. Year to date, VW brand sales were down 4.3%, to 318,484, while the entire U.S. market increased 5.4%. Automakers are expected to announce December sales on Tuesday, Jan. 5.
