40% of Volkswagen Group’s European Orders Were 100% Electrics Last Month

Volkswagen Group says electric vehicles now make up about 40 percent of its European order book, up sharply from earlier this year. In actual deliveries, one in five vehicles the company handed over in Europe in the past quarter was fully electric, and Volkswagen Group now accounts for nearly a quarter of all plug-in vehicle sales in Europe, well ahead of its nearest rival. The company points to high fuel prices and a new lineup of cheaper electric models as the main reasons buyers are switching.

That cheaper lineup, called the Electric Urban Car Family, includes the VW ID. Polo, ID. Cross02, Škoda Epiq, and Cupra Raval. Together they have drawn nearly 150,000 orders since launch, and Volkswagen says electric order intake in Europe jumped more than 60 percent in the most recent quarter compared with a year earlier. For anyone shopping for a smaller, lower-cost electric car in Europe, this signals that more affordable models are now reaching dealers in volume, rather than staying stuck at the luxury end of the market.

The picture is different elsewhere. Volkswagen's electric sales in China are recovering with new locally built models, but the overall China market is shrinking fast. In the United States, the company's electric vehicle deliveries fell 78 percent after federal subsidy programs expired and import tariffs stayed high. So while European buyers are seeing more and cheaper electric choices from Volkswagen, American buyers are facing a thinner, pricier lineup for now, shaped by the loss of those earlier purchase incentives.