Volkswagen Doubles Deliveries Of Battery Electric Vehicles In Q3

Volkswagen announced this week that its sales of battery electric vehicles worldwide doubled in the third quarter of this year. In all, EVs accounted for more than 6% of the company’s global sales for the first time. Through the end of September, Volkswagen sold 293,100 EVs — more than 6% of total sales. The company did particularly well in China, where it delivered 28,900 cars. That figure is up substantially from the 18,300 delivered in the first half of 2021. The strong sales performance comes in spite of the worldwide shortage of computer chips that is affecting all automakers.

Christian Dahlheim, the heead of Volkswagen Group sales, said, “Our global electric offensive continues to run at full speed. We are clearly the number one for all-electric vehicles in Europe, and number two in the USA. In China, we really took off in the third quarter, with deliveries of BEVs almost 60 percent higher than in the entire first half of the year. The strong demand for our global target for the year of one million electrified vehicles (BEVs+PHEVs) is definitely there.”

The company delivered a total of 246,000 PHEVs in the first nine months, more than twice as many as in the prior-year period. (CleanTechnica readers have mixed feelings about PHEVs, but they do offer some carbon emission reductions — assuming their owners actually plug them in.)

Breaking down sales of battery electric vehicles by region, Volkswagen is the clear leader in Europe, with 209,800 deliveries or 26% of the market. In the US, its EV sales amounted to 27,300 EVs — about 8% of the market. In China, 47,200 BEVs were delivered by the end of September for 16% of VW’s global EV deliveries and a 24% market share in that country. Dahlheim added, “As planned, we significantly accelerated the BEV market ramp-up in China in the third quarter, and we are on track to meeting our target for the year of delivering 80,000 to 100,000 vehicles of the ID. model family.”

At the close of the 3rd quarter, deliveries of Volkswagen brand EVs amounted to 167,800 or 57% of all battery electric car sales for Volkswagen Group. Audi was second with 52,800 vehicles (18%), ŠKODA accounted for 11% of Group sales with 32,100 vehicles delivered, Porsche had 10% of Group sales with 28,600 vehicles delivered, and SEAT had 8,800 vehicles delivered for 3% of the total.

The top 5 BEV models in the nine-month period were as follows:

• Volkswagen ID.4 72,700 units
• Volkswagen ID.3 52,700 units
• Audi e-tron (incl. Sportback) 36,100 units
• Porsche Taycan (incl. Cross Turismo) 28,600 units
• ŠKODA Enyaq iV 28,200 units

People may differ about who makes the best electric cars, but it is clear that Volkswagen is pushing forward with its EV plans. For those who might wish for more BEVs and fewer PHEVs from Volkswagen, we have this advice: “Patience, grasshopper.”