Volkswagen said that its namesake brand sold more vehicles worldwide in 2017 than ever before, a sign it is recovering from a bruising emissions-cheating scandal three years ago.

"We finished 2017 with the best performance ever for Volkswagen," Herbert Diess, chairman of the board of management of the Volkswagen passenger car brand, said Sunday night at the Detroit Auto Show. Global sales rose 4.2 percent to 6.2 million, with sales in China jumping 5.9 percent to 3.2 million, more than half the total sold globally.

Other countries with strong gains in terms of percentages included the United States, Russia and Brazil, although all of these countries are much smaller markets for VW than China.