Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen Group, said in a recent interview with the media that Volkswagen's electric vehicle orders in Europe and the United States this year have basically sold out. Consumers in these two major markets are now deciding on the electric models of any of the group's brands, and it is expected that they will not pick up the car until 2023 at the earliest. At the same time, china's electric vehicle orders are also picking up.
According to Diess, there is currently a backlog of 300,000 orders in Western Europe alone.
In the first quarter of this year, the Volkswagen Group delivered 99,000 electric vehicles worldwide, an increase of 65.2% year-on-year. However, Tesla delivered more than 310,000 vehicles worldwide during the same period, while BYD, which was the first to stop selling fuel vehicles, sold 143,200 pure electric passenger cars in the first quarter of 2022.
According to the 2021 data, the Volkswagen Group delivered 452,900 pure electric models for the whole year, of which 310,400 units, 92,700 units and 37,200 units were delivered in the European, Chinese and US markets, respectively.
As the most radical traditional car company in the current transformation, Volkswagen Group has set this year's electric vehicle sales at 700,000 units, an increase of about 54.56% year-on-year. However, at present, the tight supply chain, the production restrictions caused by the repeated epidemics and the production capacity problems of the factory itself will become a new constraint on the electrification of Volkswagen ALL IN.
Volkswagen has three electric vehicle plants in China, namely SAIC Volkswagen Anting MEB Plant, FAW-Volkswagen Foshan MEB Plant and Volkswagen Anhui MEB Plant. In terms of design capacity, the three plants will have a combined production capacity of 1.5 million units by 2025.
Diess previously made it clear in an interview with foreign media that "although the supply chain shortage will continue through 2022", the future growth of Volkswagen Group in the United States will "mainly come from electric models".
As a result, capacity is still expanding for the U.S. market: Volkswagen is still planning to build a second electric car plant, as well as a battery factory. The two plants are expected to remain adjacent to Volkswagen's existing Chattanooga plant in Tennessee, usa, in order to take advantage of its production facilities, the news shows.
In addition, Diess also announced this week that it will raise its investment in Spain from 7 billion euros to 10 billion euros for the construction of a battery plant and two electric vehicle production plants.