The year 2021 saw battery electric vehicles breakthrough to become mainstream in the UK car market with overall BEV sales up 76.3 percent on 2020 to a total of 190,727 units, equivalent to 11.6 percent of all cars registered.
With multi-award winning cars, from the Volkswagen ID.3 and World Car of the Year ID.4; plus the outstanding Audi e-tron GT and Audi Q4 e-tron joining the existing Audi e-tron line up; and the ŠKODA Enyaq iV entering the market, Volkswagen Group UK outperformed the car market with an increase in battery electric registrations of over 100 percent to 33,239 in 2021.
Meanwhile Porsche Cars GB registered 4,039 Taycan models leading total Volkswagen Group BEV registrations in the UK to more than double to 37,278 cars in 2021 compared with the year before.
Commenting on the results, Volkswagen Group UK’s Managing Director Alex Smith paid tribute to the performance of the retailer network as well as the local and global Volkswagen Group team: “In 2021 the Volkswagen Group family worked hard to deliver a record market share with an outstanding sales performance despite challenging external factors.
“2021 was the year that in particular saw the breakthrough in sales of our multi-award winning battery electric cars with registrations more than doubling year on year versus the overall market growth of 76 percent for BEVs. With more exciting models to come in 2022, including the eagerly anticipated Volkswagen ID. BUZZ as well as CUPRA Born, we have built a solid platform to grow sales even further of zero tailpipe-emission vehicles.
“Volkswagen’s partnership with Tesco offers free charging at over 400 stores. Together with the Group’s investment in the fast-charging IONITY network, as well as our cooperations with Octopus Energy and PodPoint, we continue to share in the expansion of the necessary EV charging infrastructure.
“We call on all stakeholders to work intensively in 2022 and beyond to rapidly expand the required charging infrastructure. The goal must be to make public charging as accessible as a visit to a petrol station. This is key to encouraging even more customers to switch to electric vehicles as we move towards a world of connected, electrified, and ultimately autonomous enabled, carbon neutral mobility.”
