Volkswagen Says Global Electric Vehicle Sales Jumped 97% Last Year

Volkswagen Group’s VWAGY global electric vehicle deliveries nearly doubled last year helped by sales of its ID.4 electric sports utility vehicle and the legacy automaker said it expects the first half of 2022 to be highly volatile due to chip shortages.

What Happened: The German automaker said it delivered 263,000 all-electric vehicles to customers last year, a jump of 97% over 2020.

The automaker said the ID.4 electric SUVs contributed about 45% of the total all-electric vehicle sales at 119,650 units last year, followed by 76,000 units of the ID.3 hatchback.

Including plug-in hybrids, total battery electric vehicle deliveries reached 369,000 units last year, a jump of 73% over 2020. 

Volkswagen warned of persistent supply bottlenecks for semiconductors in the first six months and said it expects to be able to stabilize production as the year goes on.

Overall, including gas-powered cars, Volkswagen said it delivered a total of 4.8 million vehicles globally last year, a decline of 8% over 2020. The legacy automaker cited chip shortages for the decline in sales.

See Also: Volkswagen Aims To Double ID EV Sales In China This Year After Missing 2021 Target

“Volkswagen achieved satisfactory sales under extremely challenging conditions,” said Klaus Zellmer, board member for sales and marketing at Volkswagen. 

“Nonetheless, our record-breaking order backlog of 543,000 vehicles in Europe alone - thereof 95,000 IDs - shows clearly that the demand for Volkswagen vehicles continues to be very high.” 

Volkswagen said deliveries of electric vehicles rose in the United States, China and Germany. 

The automaker delivered 70,625 ID electric vehicles in China last year, below its target to sell between 80,000-100,000 units. It now aims to sell a minimum of 140,000 IDs in China this year.

Why It Matters: Volkswagen started selling the ID.3 electric hatchback in 2020 and has since launched other models in the ID series, including the ID.4 and soon plans to launch ID.5, its first electric SUV "coupe.”

See Also: Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess Keeps His Job, Company Ramps Up EV Investments As It Looks Ahead To 'Important Years Of Transformation'

In China, where it is the No. 1 automaker by sales, Volkswagen has set an ambitious sales target for its ID series and compete against a crop of local startups like Nio Inc NIO and Xpeng Inc XPEV.

The ID.4 competes with Tesla Inc’s TSLA Model Y and Ford Motor Co’s F Mustang Mach-Es. 

Volkswagen last year said it expects that, by 2026, one in four vehicles that it sells would have a battery-electric drive system

Price Action: VWAGY shares closed 0.6% higher at $31.5 a share on Wednesday.

Photo: Courtesy of Volkswagen

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