After a long dry spell, the Volkswagen Group is making progress in its European electric car business, but is facing increasing difficulties in other regions of the world – especially China. As VW announced on Friday, deliveries of fully electric cars in Europe rose by 78 percent to 522,600 vehicles between January and September. This corresponds to almost a fifth of deliveries in the region. In China, however, the group’s sales figures across all drive types have only remained relatively stable because of the combustion engine models. These continue to sell quite well, while the company has so far barely gained a foothold in the market for electric cars due to the brutal price war. In North American business, Trump’s tariffs and generally weaker demand are weighing on deliveries. Marco Schubert, responsible for sales on the executive board, spoke in a press release of “challenging conditions” in America and China. In general, the group’s new models are well received, but intensive cost work is still necessary. “In order to be able to survive well in this demanding market environment, we must continue to work with all our strength on the implementation of our group-wide product offensive and the ongoing performance programs,” Schubert was quoted as saying. Politicians are struggling to find the right course. At the car summit in Berlin, the industry had just spoken to the federal government about how, on the one hand, electric cars would be promoted and, on the other hand, combustion engine models would be promoted for longer than previously planned can be sold. However, the SPD and the Union have not yet found a clear position on the negotiations in Europe about a move away from the combustion engine in 2035. The growth now announced in the European electric car business does not seem to fit with the production stops that VW has just imposed at locations like Zwickau. On closer inspection, however, there is “no contradiction,” as sales manager Schubert explained in an internal interview for the VW workforce that was distributed on Friday. “The overall market for fully electric vehicles in Europe is growing steadily, but overall significantly slower than we and other manufacturers and experts expected a few years ago.” Across all drive types, VW delivered 6.6 million cars around the world within a year, an increase of just over one percent. There was an increase in Europe, primarily due to the increase in electric cars. In America, too, more battery vehicles were sold to customers, but business remained small and overall sales of all drives fell by eight percent. In China, sales fell by four percent, and pure electric car sales there fell by more than 40 percent to just 85,100 vehicles. Audi, the VW Group’s premium manufacturer, is still struggling. China is the most important market for the four-ring brand. Here, Audi sold 434,435 combustion and electric cars in the first nine months, nine percent less than before, joining the weak sales figures that its two competitors BMW and Mercedes also reported this week. With the new electric brand “AUDI” – in capital letters and without the four rings – CEO Gernot Döllner wants to reverse the trend in the Middle Kingdom. According to the group, the first model E5-Sportback got off to a promising start, especially since with a sales price of around 30,000 euros it can keep up with the low-price offers from Chinese manufacturers. More on the topic The group’s parent brand, VW, does not want to give up China as a market yet. “Our new electric models, which were developed ‘In China for China’ and are now being gradually introduced onto the market, will help us to build on the dynamic market development with our electric performance,” says VW manager Schubert with conviction. However, it is far from certain whether the cars will get caught by customers there. In China, around 150 car brands are now fighting for customers with competitive prices. The former market leader VW has so far only been a niche player in the local electric car business.
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