Photo: Volkswagen
Volkswagen sold just over 99,000 electric vehicles (EVs) during the first quarter of this year across all of its brands, including Porsche, Audi, and Škoda in addition to the main Volkswagen line — reports the Financial Times.
Output was lower than Volkswagen had hoped for due to supply chain constraints hampering global production. In fact, the legacy German carmaker is already “sold out” of all-electric models in the U.S. and Europe for the rest of this year.
Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess has said that demand for EVs remains strong, so much so that the company had an order backlog of 300,000 EVs in western Europe. Diess added that customers placing EV orders in Europe and the US now would not get their deliveries before 2023.
“We have very high order books and . . . order intake on electric vehicles,” said Diess. “That accounts for all of our models from ID.3, ID.4, the Audi models — [all] are extremely well received in the markets, Škoda models are also very well received in Europe.”
“We are basically sold out on electric vehicles in Europe and in the United States. And in China, it’s really picking up,” said Diess.
Last month, Volkswagen was forced to delay its ID.5 electric crossover to May after Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine cut off the company’s supply of wiring harnesses and other “key” electronics components.
Meanwhile, the largest outbreak of COVID-19 in two years continues to haunt manufacturing and sales in China, Volkswagen’s biggest market. VW only sold 28,800 cars in China during Q1.
The automotive market as a whole is also seeing significant inflationary pressure on the cost of raw materials and logistics.
Volkswagen is targeting a total EV sales volume of 700,000 units globally for 2022, with at least 140,000 in China, to catch up with Tesla. In comparison, Tesla delivered over 936,000 cars last year and is on track for a lot more in 2022.
VW warned that there was “a continued risk” that the war in Ukraine and lockdowns in China could “have a negative impact on . . . business activities in the current year.”
However, Volkswagen CFO Arno Antlitz remains bullish on delivery numbers for the full year. “From where we are now, we anticipate a constantly growing battery electric vehicle volume and share in every quarter of 2022.”
Tesla, the world’s foremost EV maker, delivered a record 310,048 cars during the same period.
