Worldwide vehicle deliveries by Volkswagen in June fell by 17.5 percent year-on-year to a total of 804,100, the German carmaker announced on Friday.

In the first half of the year, global deliveries dropped by 27.4 percent year on year to just under 3.9 million vehicles, according to Volkswagen.

The slump in sales in June was less pronounced than in the previous month when worldwide vehicle deliveries by Volkswagen plummeted by almost 34 percent year on year as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

With 255,200 deliveries in Volkswagen's home market in Western Europe, unit sales recovered somewhat from the sharp drop in May but were still down almost 30 percent compared to last year.

In China, Volkswagen delivered 341,000 vehicles in June as year-on-year sales only decreased slightly by 3.9 percent. In the previous month, vehicle deliveries by Volkswagen in China had even increased.

It had been a "difficult half year" for Volkswagen in China because of COVID-19, said Herbert Diess, chairmen of the board of management of Volkswagen. He was "glad that fast recovery picked up since April."

The German company's investment plan for China of 4 billion euros (4.6 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020 would remain "unchanged." Diess stressed that 40 percent of Volkswagen's investments in China would go into electric mobility. 

China's passenger car sales in June fell 6.5 percent year on year to 1.68 million units, signaling a continuing recovery in the passenger car market, according to official data released on July 8.