Vehicle sales might be down by around 8% at Volkswagen this year, compared to the 2020 fiscal year. But despite the lower sales figure, the German marque managed to increase sales for battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in line with the company’s push for electrification.
Volkswagen announced that sales of electric vehicles doubled in 2021, selling over 369,000 EVs globally out of the nearly 4.9 million vehicles sold. According to the company, that means almost 7.5% of all VW sales in 2021 were EVs. For comparison, that figure was only at 4% in 2020. Out of the 369,000 units, 106,300 are comprised of plug-in hybrids, while the remaining 263,000 are battery electric vehicles.
The brand’s best-selling EV for 2021 was the ID.4, which sold a total of 119,650 units. It’s followed by the ID.3 and the e-up! with approximately 76,000 units and 41,500 units sold, respectively. Meanwhile, the China-exclusive ID.6 sold just under 18,000 units. The ID.4, however, topped BEV charts in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Ireland.
Given Volkswagen’s increase in EV sales, it shows that consumers are choosing EVs. Aside from the high sales figures, the company claims they even have a backlog of 95,000 electric ID models in Europe. The company does expect to lower its high backlog of orders later this year.
“Volkswagen achieved satisfactory sales under extremely challenging conditions. The massive effects on production brought on by the semiconductor situation could not be entirely compensated for over the course of the year, however. 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,” said Klaus Zellmer, Board Member for Sales and Marketing at Volkswagen.
Volkswagen expects that sales and deliveries for the first half of 2022 will remain “highly volatile and challenging owing to persistent supply bottlenecks for semiconductors”. However, the company expects production to stabilize as the year goes on.
