Volkswagen Passenger Cars report that its global car sales during the fourth quarter of 2023 amounted to almost 1.4 million units (up 13% year-over-year). The total volume in 2023 was 4.87 million (up 6.7% year-over-year).

The company also noticeably increased its all-electric car sales in 2023, although the rate of growth has recently weakened to just a few percent.

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Volkswagen BEV’s sales growth disappoints

In 2023, the Volkswagen brand sold some 394,000 all-electric passenger cars globally, which is 21% more than a year ago and 8% of the total volume. However, the company recently has experienced many challenges in increasing BEV sales, especially in Europe.

In Q4, Volkswagen sold some 121,000 all-electric cars (calculated as the difference between the annual result and the previous quarters), which is a new quarterly record. On the other hand, compared to Q4 2022, the brand improved BEV sales by only 2.5% year-over-year.

Not only that, the share of BEVs out of the total volume amounted to 8.7%, which is noticeably less than a year ago (9.6%). This is a warning sign.

In a separate report later this month, we will take a look also at the broader Volkswagen Group BEV sales and some of the other brands within the group, depending on the data availability.

The brand does not report detailed sales results of the particular models.

Volkswagen Passenger Cars BEV sales in Q4 2023:

In 2023, the Volkswagen brand sold roughly 394,000 all-electric cars globally. That’s 21% more than a year ago and 8.1% of the total volume.

Volkswagen Passenger Cars BEV sales in Q1-Q4 2023:

• Total: 394,000 (up 21% year-over-year) and 8.1% share

For reference, in 2022, 325,100 Volkswagen BEVs were sold globally (up 23.5% year-over-year), which at the time was 7.1% of the total volume.

The Volkswagen brand reveals that its largest BEV markets—in absolute figures—were “China, Germany, the US, the UK, Sweden, France, Norway, and Belgium”.

An interesting thing is that in China, the Volkswagen ID.3 model noted more than 75,000 sales in 2023 (up over 200% year-over-year). Other highlights include about 30,000 Volkswagen ID.4 sales in Germany (up 62.9%) and about 38,000 ID.4 sales in the U.S. (up 82.2%).

However, the growth rate is now significantly lower than in the case of many other OEMs: