11:49 am, January 10, 2024
Volkswagen Group saw its sales creep closer to pre-pandemic levels last year as the firm continued to bounce back from supply chain headaches.
Figures released by the German conglomerate yesterday (Jan 9) have revealed that sales rose 12% in 2023 to 9.24m units.
The figure is up from the low of 8.3m units the group sold in 2022 and is almost level with the 9.3m sales achieved in 2020.
The result suggests that the industry is finally returning to a level of normality following heavy disruption caused by supply chain challenges ranging from the war in Ukraine to a shortage of semiconductors.
Across the group as a whole, sales of EVs rose 35% to 770,000 vehicles, despite executive raising concerns about a lack of demand over recent months.
The outfit also benefitted from significant growth in China, where it sold 191,800 electric cars, in the face of huge competition from the likes of BYD and GWM.
Overall, Volkswagen Group sold 3.2 million cars in the country – a rise of 1.6%.
When it came to the Volkswagen brand alone, the Wolfsburg-based firm sold 4.87m cars last year – a 6.7% rise on the previous year’s result.
The brand was able to increase sales of its fully electric vehicles by 21.1% to 394,000 units in 2023.
The largest markets for the brand’s all-electric cars were China, Germany, the US, the UK, Sweden, France, Norway and Belgium.
Imelda Labbé, Volkswagen board member for sales, marketing and aftersales said: ‘The delivery figures show that we are on the right track as a brand and that our cars are well received by our customers.
‘We expect the market environment to remain challenging in 2024. But with our revised and attractive product portfolio, we are in the right position.’
