On January 11, Audi announced its global sales data for 2021. Despite the global semiconductor shortage, Audi delivered a total of 1,680,512 vehicles to customers worldwide last year, almost the same as in 2020. Among them, Audi's sales in the US market increased by 5% compared with 2020. In addition, it is worth mentioning that Audi's lineup of pure electric products has more than doubled last year, and the sales of pure electric vehicles have also soared by 57.5% year-on-year.
Audi sales in 2021 (Image: Audi)
In the first half of last year, Audi set an all-time high with a semi-annual delivery of 981,681 units, which was expected to break the annual delivery record, but the continued shortage of semiconductors in the second half of the year led to Audi's fourth quarter deliveries being 34.2% lower than the same period in 2020.
However, the delivery of Audi's pure electric models continues to rise. In 2021, Audi's pure electric vehicles sold 81,894 units, an increase of 57.5% year-on-year. By 2025, Audi plans to launch more than 20 pure electric models. Starting in 2026, the brand will launch new pure electric models exclusively on the market.
Audi's launch of the Audi e-tron GT and Audi RS e-tron GT earlier this year set a strong example. The Audi Q4 e-tron and Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron also play a central role in Audi's electrification strategy. With these four new models, Audi's portfolio of pure electric models has more than doubled in the past year.
Audi's explicit commitment to electric vehicles is also evident in its capital expenditure plan: under the company's plan approved at the end of 2021, Audi will invest around 18 billion euros in electrification and hybridization between 2022 and 2026. The total investment is around €37 billion, which means that nearly half of the investment will be invested in these two forward-looking areas.
In addition to the pure electric model, the sales growth of the Audi Q3 (+19.2%), Audi A5 (+8.3%), and Audi A7 (+9.2%) was particularly significant. Audi SUVs are also very sought-after, with sales of Audi Q5 (+5.3%) and Audi Q7 (+5.3%) both rising. Audi Sport's high-performance models once again surpassed last year's performance, setting a new record (+34.2%) with sales of 39,356 units.
Regionally, in China, Audi delivered a total of 701,289 vehicles in 2021, down 3.6% year-on-year. In the fourth quarter of last year, Audi's locally produced models suffered a serious chip shortage, but the demand for imported models increased sharply, up 53% year-on-year, of which the Audi A5 (up 96.7% year-on-year), Audi Q7 (up 74.4% year-on-year) and pure electric Audi e-tron (up 68.7% year-on-year) sales performance was particularly prominent. In addition, sales of Audi Sport models in China more than doubled (113.4%) compared with 2020.
In the United States, Audi sales increased by 5% year-on-year to 196,038 units, of which Audi pure electric vehicle sales in the United States hit a record high, up 52.5% year-on-year, of which the Audi e-tron achieved a substantial increase of 36%. Audi SUVs also performed well in the U.S., with the Audi Q3 (up 26.5% in sales) and the Audi Q5 (up 19.6%) selling best. The Audi Sport model also set a record for U.S. sales of 7,796 units ( up 60.5 percent year-over-year) sales. In Canada, Audi's sales also achieved an 11.2% year-on-year increase.
In Europe, Audi sales edged down 0.4% y/y to 617,048 units, with demand for the Audi A3 (+3.6%), Audi Q3 (+5.6%), Audi Q5 (+18.6%) and Audi Q8 (+1.8%) also growing in the region. Audi also achieved significant sales growth in 2021 in France (+10.2%), Italy (+9.9%), the United Kingdom (+9.4%), etc. In Denmark and Norway, Audi sales also hit record highs, in part because electric models were particularly popular in both regions. In Germany, Audi sales fell 15.6 percent to 180,883 units, largely due to a shortage of semiconductors and a reduction in the country's value-added tax in the second half of last year. The Audi e-tron continued to show particularly positive growth in the domestic market, with an increase of 10.3%.
In other global markets, Audi shipped 137,347 units, up 3.1 percent from the previous year. The electric model also showed a very positive trend, with sales up 89.6%.
Hilegard Wortmann, Audi's board member in charge of marketing and marketing, said: "While semiconductor supply will continue to be tight in the coming months, the strong growth in the delivery of electric models allows us to unswervingly stick to our roadmap. The large number of new and backlog orders shows that we have the right portfolio. ”