Volkswagen Commercial sales booming because of COVID

Volkswagen is cashing in on Australians holidaying at home.

The Amarok ute and Multivan people mover are selling strongly, and the larger Crafter van is attracting interest from buyers keen to live life on the road.

“Everybody’s desire for domestic tourism, no international travel, means people are investing in those toys that can take them camping around Australia,” said Nick Reid, Volkswagen Group Australia national marketing and product manager.

The Amarok is comfortably the best-selling Volkswagen in Australia so far in 2021, sitting ahead of the T-Cross city SUV on the sales charts.

Despite its advancing age, the dual-cab ute is up 53.7 per cent to date in 2021, while Multivan sales have grown more than 100 per cent to date.

Demand for the two-tone T6.1 Multivan California has seen wait times blow out until the end of 2021, and the Caddy California will join the range as a full-time member late in the third quarter.

The new Crafter van is also growing in 2021, with 413 sales to date in 2021 representing a 93 per cent jump on the same point in 2020.

Mr Reid says the Crafter is being snapped up by customers keen to convert it into a camper and go touring around Australia.

“A lot of Crafter is traditional business fleets, but a big proportion of Crafter is the home converter,” he told CarExpert.

“We showed a Crafter at the recent Rose Hill camping and caravanning show. It was quite a well-specced Crafter, so it had swivelling seats and it had two-tone paint.

“The whole time it was full of guys and girls, families, with tape measures… rather than buying a converted product they’re looking at doing it themselves so they can get something that’s really bespoke.”

Volkswagen isn’t alone in riding a wave of demand for cars capable of taking on the open road.

Nissan credits our closed international borders for some of the Patrol’s recent success, last year telling CarExpert that “Australians are obviously touring more at home” due to COVID.