Volkswagen Group international gross sales rise, however will end second to Toyota

The Volkswagen Group has rebounded from a tough 2022 to register a 11.9 per cent gross sales enhance to 9.24 million items in 2023.

Regardless of rising previous the 9 million mark, the Volkswagen Group will as soon as once more end in second place to Toyota Motor Company which to the top of November 2023 had already notched up 10.2 million gross sales worldwide.

The Wolfsburg-based conglomerate offered roughly 770,000 pure electrical autos (EVs) in 2023, a bounce of 35 per cent over the earlier yr. EVs now account for 8.3 per cent of the corporate’s complete gross sales, up from 6.9 per cent in 2022.

Not too long ago the group’s largest market was China, however the firm has struggled there of late, with native producers releasing new plug-in hybrid and absolutely electrical fashions at a prodigious fee.

Thanks an enormous enhance in gross sales throughout Western Europe, the automaker’s residence market is — for now — as soon as once more its most numerically necessary.

Volkswagen

Out of the various manufacturers owned by the automaker, solely two have to this point supplied particulars about their 2023 gross sales efficiency: Volkswagen, and Seat/Cupra.

The core Volkswagen model elevated gross sales by 6.7 per cent to 4.87 million. The automaker’s namesake marque made up 52.7 per cent of the corporate’s complete gross sales.

Volkswagen offered 394,000 EVs in 2023, an enchancment of 21.1 per cent. EVs now account for 8.1 per cent of the model’s total gross sales.

With speak of doom and gloom round EV gross sales, the model is eager to level out that roughly 30,000 ID.4 crossovers have been offered in Germany, with an extra 38,000 offered within the USA. Round 75,000 ID.3 hatchbacks have been offered in China, a 200 per cent enhance from the earlier yr.

Crossovers continued their march up the leaderboard, with Volkswagen’s pseudo-off-roaders growing their gross sales by 14.9 per cent. They now account for 54.2 of the model’s international gross sales, with the T-Roc being the most well-liked one in Europe.

Regardless of this, conventional fashions aren’t fully lifeless, the Polo, for example, registered 110,000 gross sales in Brazil, and noticed a 44.1 per cent enhance in Germany to 33,500 items.

Volkswagen will probably present extra figures relating to mannequin gross sales, and regional figures when the automaker publishes its full-year monetary statements later through the first quarter.

SEAT and Cupra

SEAT S.A., the corporate that runs each the SEAT and Cupra manufacturers, notched up a formidable 34.6 per cent achieve to register 519,200 items offered.

Regardless of current affirmation the SEAT model will slowly wind down in favour of its extra athletically-positioned off-shoot, SEAT (up 24.0 per cent to 288,400) nonetheless registered extra gross sales than Cupra (up 50.9 per cent to 230,700).

The 2 high sellers for Cupra have been the Formentor crossover (up 23.0 per cent to 120,100), and all-electric Born hatch (up 44.4 per cent to 45,300).

In the meantime the highest three fashions for SEAT have been the T-Cross-size Arona crossover (up 25.3 per cent to 89,000), the Polo-sized Ibiza hatch (up 51.5 per cent to 77,700), and Skoda Karoq-based Ateca crossover (up 38.5 per cent to 66,800).

Unsurprisingly, Spain, SEAT’s residence market, was its largest with Germany coming second. The sportier Cupra model, alternatively, had Germany as its most necessary market by some margin, with Spain solely making it to the ultimate podium place.