The sales figures for 2021 are gradually trickling in and we are seeing strong growth in global sales of electric cars from German manufacturers. Volkswagen, for example, consistently reports double- to triple-digit growth for all vehicles with pure battery-electric drive systems.
| 2021 | 2020 | Delta | |
| Volkswagen | 263,200 | 133,900 | 96.6% |
| Audi | 81,900 | 52,000 | 57.5% |
| Skoda | 49,100 | 15,200 | 223.0% |
| Seat | 13,000 | 7,300 | 78.1% |
| Porsche | 41,300 | 20,000 | 106.5% |
| VW Commercial | 3,600 | 2,700 | 33.3% |
| MAN | 800 | 500 | 60.0% |
| Total | 452,900 | 184,500 | 95.6% |
BMW also saw an increase of 70.4 percent in electric cars. One in ten Minis sold is battery electric, and exactly 34,851 of these were sold in 2021. With the i3, iX3 and the new iX and i4 vehicles, BMW had a total of 103,855 battery electric vehicles delivered worldwide in 2021.
| 2021 | |
| BMW i3 | 28,216 |
| Mini | 34,851 |
| BMW iX3 | 37,939 |
| BMW iX & i4 | 2,849 |
| Total | 103,855 |
Mercedes in turn sold 48,936 battery electric vehicles in the EQ series, and with the Smart and Commercial Vans came to a total of 99,301 battery electric vehicles sold worldwide in 2021.
All figures together give the following picture for the German manufacturers in terms of sales of battery electric vehicles:
| 2021 | Delta | |
| Volkswagen Group | 452,900 | +95.6% |
| BMW | 103,855 | +70.4% |
| Mercedes | 99,301 | +154.8% |
| Total | 656,056 |
from a fairly low level. The gap to the biggest competitor Tesla is narrowing only to a limited extent. In some important markets, the differences are striking. In China, for example, Tesla sold 70,847 vehicles in December 2021 alone, which is more than the number of electric cars Volkswagen sold in China in the entire year.
The chip shortage has hit German manufacturers hard. For example, although premium and electric vehicles have been given preferential treatment in the allocation of chips, demand is outstripping production capacity. Volkswagen’s 2021 sales of 8.9 million vehicles (internal combustion, hybrids, electric) were the lowest since 10 years ago. Mercedes sales also fell 5.1 percent to 2.4 million units, with only BMW seeing an increase of 8.4 percent to 2.21 million vehicles [Reuters].
This article was also published in German.
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