The hold Volkswagen Group’s electric vehicle inventory is now spoken for until 2023, as CEO Herbert Diess has said.
The European auto group covers not only its eponymous VW brand but also Audi, Porsche, Seat, and Cupra. With the Cupra Born set to be launched on the European auto market a couple of years ago, the news could not come at a worse time. Volkswagen has already said it will delay the introduction of its ID series to Australia whilst it needs to prioritise inventory elsewhere.
In a report by the Financial Times, Diess said that the automaker is “basically sold out on electric vehicles in Europe and in the United States” for the rest of 2022, as the company grapples with the global chip shortage and other issues to do with the Shanghai Covid shutdowns.
The manufacturing-wide problem is holding up many sectors, as well as other automakers.
Volkswagen sold 100,000 electric cars in the first quarter of 2022, a third of Tesla. According to FT, Volkswagen continues to take orders in Europe and the US and expects its backlog of orders to continue to grow.
