Volkswagen Group drove forward its transformation into a sustainable, software-centric mobility group in the year now ended and approximately doubled its BEV deliveries year-on-year to 452,900 units. These now account for 5.1 percent of total deliveries, up from 2.5 percent in the previous year.
The Group is the European market leader for battery-electric vehicles by a large margin and achieved the second-largest share of the key US market with about 7.5 percent. In China, 92,700 BEVs were delivered, more than four times the figure for 2020. Sales of plug-in hybrids worldwide also rose significantly to 309,500 units (+61 percent).
In total, the Group delivered 8,882,000 vehicles to customers around the world. As forecast, the global semiconductor shortage led to a slight decrease of 4.5 percent versus 2020 despite high customer demand and full order books.
Christian Dahlheim, Head of Volkswagen Group Sales: “2021 was very challenging due to global semiconductor shortages, but we nevertheless consistently implemented our clear future course towards NEW AUTO. The doubling of our battery-electric volumes and the high demand for all our vehicles clearly show that we are on the right track. This is something we will build on in the current year and continue to drive forward our transformation.”
Figures for 2021 show how the Volkswagen Group’s business model is changing. The sources of income will progressively shift further from conventional petrol engines to zero-emissions electric cars and from sales of vehicles to software and mobility services, underpinned by the key technology of autonomous driving. The Volkswagen Group projects that in 2030 one in two cars sold worldwide will be purely electric.
Systematic electrification of the product portfolio is also reflected in the investment planning for the years 2022 to 2026 that the Volkswagen Group presented in December. These plans provide for an increase in capex and development costs for e-mobility of around 50 percent compared with the previous planning, giving a total of EUR 52 billion.
The Group’s top-selling battery-electric models in 2021 were (in units):
– Volkswagen ID.4 119,600
– Volkswagen ID.3 75,500
– Audi e-tron (incl. Sportback) 49,200
– ŠKODA Enyaq iV 44,700
– Volkswagen e-up! 41,400
– Porsche Taycan (incl. Turismo) 41,300
