Volkswagen doubles EV orders in Europe and commits to all-electric future

Volkswagen’s electric vehicle orders in the European market doubled, and the German automaker committed to making its future lineup entirely of EVs.

“The future will be electric; this is our conviction,” CFO and COO Arno Antlitz said during Volkwagen’s Earnings Call on Tuesday.

According to Volkswagen’s shareholder deck, new orders for its EVs more than doubled in Europe. While Volkswagen did not release the exact number, it attributed the increased orders to sustained consumer interest.

Interestingly, Volkswagen did not grow in terms of EV deliveries despite its reporting of a substantial increase in orders. Year over year, EV deliveries declined by 16 percent in Europe for the first quarter.

VW attributed these decreases to “supply bottlenecks,” it told CNN in a statement:

“There is a time gap between incoming orders and the delivery to the customer. The supply bottlenecks mentioned impacted the delivery performance in Q1.”

In China, EV deliveries almost doubled to 41,033 units for the quarter. Four new models, two of which will be electric, will be launched in China over the next three years. Antlitz said the market is one of the most difficult to gauge because it is a “very challenging pricing environment.”

Despite the positive change in China deliveries and EV orders, Volkswagen’s profits dropped 20 percent to $4.9 billion in Q1.

Antlitz is unphased by the drop. “As expected, our first-quarter results show a slow start to the year. We remain confident of achieving our financial targets for 2024.”

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