Volkswagen And BMW Report Unexpected Good News Of Their EV Progress

With many concerns in the air about the EV revolution running out of steam as even the EV king, Tesla Inc TSLA came short of estimates as it posted its first deliveries drop in four years, Volkswagen AG VWAGY and Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft BMWYY provided some much-needed optimism on the EV front.

Helped by price cuts, Volkswagen’s e-offensive is showing results in the world’s biggest car market.

While Volkswagen faced a diminishing EV demand in Europe, Europe’s largest carmaker reported a first quarter success in China where its deliveries of both internal combustion engine and electric vehicles expanded by almost 8% during the first three months of the year. Specifically, deliveries of battery-run vehicles rose 91% YoY. Ralf Brandstätter, the head of Volkswagen Group in China, summed up that the company recorded strong growth, especially with pure-battery vehicles, amid a difficult price war that Tesla ignited last year. With many fierce domestic rivals, including BYD Company Limited BYDDY, Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume is aware that staying on the top in China is a utopian dream it cannot afford. Last year, Volkswagen spent 5 billion euros to defend its position in China, yet it failed to win ground from Tesla and BYD. Back in 2019, Volkswagen was the world’s biggest automaker that had everything it takes to dethrone Tesla by 2025 and become the world’s biggest EV brand. But, Volkswagen failed to execute what it had mapped out for its EV future. Still, Volkswagen reported global deliveries of its entire portfolio rose 3% year to date, fueled by growth in China and the Americas. These figures show that despite a tricky EV journey, Volkswagen still has a lot of strengths to exploit.

BWM is finally starting to see its efforts resulting in growth on the BEV front.

BMW reported strong EV sales growth during the first quarter along with a major milestone. During the first three months of the year, BMW sold its one millionth EV. The BMW brand sold 531,039 cars across the globe, with first quarter sales rising 2.5%. But EV sales went up considerably more, more precisely 40.6% up. By hitting a major EV milestone, along with reporting a surge in first quarter sales, BMW kicked off the new year by outpacing its rivals.

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