Volkswagen Q3 earnings up sharply to $2.9 billion

BERLIN: German automaker Volkswagen AG says its earnings for the third quarter of 2010 have jumped on demand from China and strong sales of its Audi cars.

Volkswagen said net earnings rose to euro2.1 billion ($2.9 billion) in the July to September period of 2010, compared with euro161 million in the same period of 2009.

The company, based in Wolfsburg, Germany, said it saw an 18 percent increase in sales to euro30.7 billion. Of that, some euro1.36 billion came from sales in China, amounting to some 1.5 million vehicles.

VW announced its nine-month earnings last week in a preliminary market update.