Volkswagen sold fewer cars from its core VW brand last year. Sales fell by 1.4 percent to 4.8 million vehicles, as the company with CEO Oliver Blume (56) announced on Thursday. The minus fell particularly sharply China while business in North and South America was doing better. Sales boss Martin Sander spoke of a difficult year and referred to the strong competition, especially in China.
The rapid rise of the Electric cars In China, VW and other Western manufacturers have been caught off guard. According to the Chinese industry association, in 2024 almost every second car sold in the People’s Republic was an electric car or a hybrid, and with these types of drive, domestic manufacturers such as BYD, Geely or Xiaomi the nose in front. At the same time, a price war is raging that is putting massive pressure on margins. Overall, the Chinese car market grew by 5.3 percent in 2024 to 23.1 million vehicles sold. Volkswagen, on the other hand, sold almost 2.2 million cars, 8.3 percent less than a year ago.
E-car sales fell in 2024
In Europe, the Wolfsburg-based company sold 1.25 million cars, 1.7 percent less than in the previous year. However, things went much better in North America, where deliveries increased by 18.4 percent to 592,300 vehicles, and in South America, with sales increasing by 21.1 percent to almost 479,400 cars.
Business with electric cars was worse than in 2023: 383,100 electric cars were sold to customers worldwide in 2024, compared to 394,000 in the previous year. With the exception of China, demand for electric cars is currently weakening worldwide.
Europe’s largest car manufacturer is suffering from low utilization of its plants and wants to reduce the technical capacity at its German locations by over 700,000 vehicles: In December, the board of Volkswagen and IG Metall agreed after long collective bargaining agreed on an austerity package. None of the VW plants will be closed – although 35,000 jobs will be lost in the next few years.