The transition to electricity for Volkswagen is not a long and smooth river. After a difficult launch with the ID.3, to put it mildly, the German manufacturer now has an almost complete lineup of electric cars while waiting for the famous ID.2, scheduled for 2025. a model whose base price is announced below 25,000 euros.

And this model should benefit the manufacturer. Indeed, even if the Volkswagen ID.3 and ID.4 are doing quite well from a commercial point of view, The level of sales of the brand’s electric vehicles remains lower than initial forecastseven requiring an adaptation of the production speed at the factory that assembles these models.

Figures under forecasts

It must be said that the competition is fierce, especially with the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y leading the two aforementioned Volkswagen models, not forgetting the Chinese competition that is fast approaching. However, at the beginning of the year, the German brand had reasons to be happy: in the first three quarters, almost 532,000 electric cars were sold worldwide.

Compared to the 366,000 units delivered at the same time last year, the growth is impressive. But the level of orders in recent months is, to put it mildly, worrying.

At the beginning of the year, the order book included 300,000 cars to be built, but it quickly dropped to only 150,000 units. This drop was particularly noticeable in Germany, where orders fell by 60%. France and Italy were also affected by this drop in sales.

Saving Volkswagen ID.2?

Volkswagen managers point to several factors to explain this delicate situation. First, the general slowdown of the European market was indicated. In addition, as noted above, competition from Chinese manufacturers in the electric mobility sector is intensifying, and the recent increase in interest rates may have prompted some customers to delay their purchases.

First, regarding the Chinese competition, given the sales figures published by these manufacturers in Europe, we cannot say that this is a real threat to Volkswagen in the short term.

That said, the Volkswagen ID.2 seems like a messiah, but here again it will have to face stiff competition, starting with small French cars like the Renault 5 E-Tech and the other Citroën ë-C3, which are generally positioned at the same price level.

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