Volkswagen's July sales on par with last year's

Automaker Volkswagen AG said Friday that its global sales last month were on a par with last year's, but that sales worldwide from January to July reached a new record.

The Wolfsburg-based company, Europe's biggest automaker by sales, said it sold 521,000 cars last month, the same as it sold a year ago.

But for the January-July period, the company said it sold nearly 3.8 million cars, up 5 percent from last year, with strong demand coming from China where 607,500 cars were sold, a record increase of 19.3 percent.

Demand was also on the rise in the first seven months in Brazil, with …