Volkswagen says that sales of its battery-electric vehicles – including those of subsidiaries Cupra, Audi, Skoda and Porsche – have increased by 45 per cent in the third-quarter of 2023 over the same point last year.
All up, the Volkswagen Group delivered 531,500 battery-electric vehicles between January and September, 2023, far outpacing that of the 366,600 it had delivered by the same point in 2022.
Electric vehicle sales made up 7.9 per cent of the VW Group’s total delivery volumes, a modest increase over the 6.8 per cent share at the end of Q3, 2022.
The EV share of the Volkswagen Group’s wider lineup jumped as high as 9 per cent in the third quarter of 2022, compared to 6.8 per cent 12-months before.
Breaking things down by brand, Volkswagen’s core passenger car division delivered 273,000 battery-electric vehicles at the end of September, amassing nearly half of the Group’s total EV deliveries.
Audi finished in second place with 123,000 electric vehicles delivered in the three-quarters of 2023 so far, followed by Skoda with 54,400 vehicles, Seat/Cupra with 32,300 vehicles and Porsche with 27,900 vehicles.
Of the model mixup, the Volkswagen ID.4/ID.5 are the Volkswagen Group’s best sellers, with 162,100 vehicles delivered, followed by the Volkswagen ID.3 with 90,500 vehicles produced, and the Audi Q4 e-tron with 77,900 vehicles delivered.
The Skoda Enyaq has made its way to 54,400 buyers so far in 2023, followed by the Cupra Born with 32,300 deliveries and the Audi Q8 e-tron with 21,800 sales so far this year.
Geographically, Europe remains by far the largest single market of the Volkswagen Group’s electric vehicles, snapping up 211,900 units in total, with sales growing by 61 per cent in Europe.
Sales in the USA also jumped by 74 per cent, though the volume of sales is far lower, at 50,300 battery-electric vehicles in total.
By the look of it, Volkswagen – like its major rivals – is also struggling to keep up sales momentum in China, reporting growth of 4 per cent to a total of 117,100 EVs in the land of the Red Dragon.
We reported last week that Mercedes-Benz and BMW were both struggling to maintain sales traction in China amidst immense domestic competition and a fierce price-cutting battle.
We also reported recently that Volkswagen was temporarily suspending production of the VW ID.3 and the Cupra Born, citing weak consumer demand, though these production suspensions were only temporary, with the Zwickau and Dresden plants kicking back into action in the past few days.
Looking forward, VW is set to release updated versions of the ID.4 SUV and its ID.5 sedan twin-under-the-skin here in Australia in 2024, complete with power updates and more range than the first-gen vehicles that only made their way to Europe and select markets like North America.
