Volkswagen Group has highlighted a considerable upturn in vehicle deliveries during the first three months of the year.

The company's performance update for Q1 2014 showed a total of 2.4 million units were sold to customers between January and the end of March this year – a 5.8 per cent increase from the same period in 2013.

Furthermore, March was an especially positive move for the group, with a total of 929,500 vehicles sold across the globe (an annual increase of 7.6 per cent).

Volkswagen group board member for sales Christian Klingler commented: "All in all, we are very satisfied with the way deliveries developed in the first three months."

"The positive momentum in the Asia-Pacific region continued, with China remaining the group's largest single market. Furthermore, there are signs of a return to modest growth on the markets in western Europe.

"In terms of group brands, Audi, Skoda and also Seat recorded the highest percentage increases, with deliveries in some cases rising quite significantly."

Indeed, the overall European market proved a positive stamping ground for the marque in the first three months of the year, with an 8.6 per cent upturn in new vehicle sales, while the western Europe region (excluding Germany) saw a rise of 8.2 per cent in comparison to the same period last year.

North America saw something of a less favourable performance for the brand though, with an annual downturn in sales of 4.2 per cent, while in South America the brand saw a dramatic reduction in sales of 23.1 per cent – of which, the results for Brazil (down 20.5 per cent) were particularly displeasing.

However, in the Asia-Pacific region, the company once again showed good form and witnessed a 13.7 per cent rise in sales, with growth of 14.5 per cent in China a particular highlight.

Broken down by brand, the group witnessed solid sales growth in the main part, with only the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles marque suffering a reduction in sales over the three-month period – down 2.3 per cent.

Volkswagen Passenger Cars saw sales rise by 3.9 per cent to 1.48 million vehicles during the January to March period, with a 5.3 per cent growth in the marque's home market of Germany serving to considerably bolster performance.

Meanwhile, Porsche delivered a sales increase of 4.5 per cent for Q1, with the Asia-Pacific market in particular proving highly lucrative for the brand, while Audi witnessed a sales increase of 11.7 per cent for the three months to 412,800 models.

Both the Seat and Skoda brands were also solidly up for the first quarter of the year, with growth of 7.3 per cent and 12.1 per cent respectively.

Overall, the Volkswagen brand continues to go from strength to strength across many areas of the globe and the company's leaders remain positive that the remainder of the year will see similar improvements in terms of both market penetration and sustained revenue increases from sales.

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