In 2020, global Volkswagen brand car sales contracted by 15% with China by far the most important market for VW. Worldwide VW battery-electric car sales tripled.
In full-year 2020, global Volkswagen branded car deliveries contracted by 15.1% to 5,328,000 passenger vehicles — almost a million fewer cars than in 2019. Sales in China, which accounts for more than half of all VW sales worldwide, were down by a more modest 10%. Volkswagen tripled global deliveries of battery-electric vehicles (BEV) while electric vehicles overall registered a 158% increase. More than a third of all Volkswagens sold worldwide in 2020 were SUVs.
Global Volkswagen Brand Sales by Market in 2020
Volkswagen reported sales of VW branded passenger vehicles as follows in various major global regions in full-year 2020:
| VW Deliveries to customers | 2019 | 2020 | % |
| Western Europe | 1,496,800 | 1,146,300 | -23.4% |
| Central and Eastern Europe | 267,700 | 222,300 | -17.0% |
| North America | 564,800 | 468,400 | -17.1% |
| South America | 491,500 | 392,300 | -20.2% |
| China incl. HK | 3,163,200 | 2,851,100 | -9.9% |
| Rest of Asia-Pacific | 149,300 | 120,500 | -19.3% |
| Middle East/Africa | 145,600 | 127,100 | -12.7% |
| Worldwide | 6,279,000 | 5,328,000 | -15.1% |
Despite a challenging market environment, Volkswagen delivered around 5.328 million vehicles across all drive systems to customers around the world. This is a decline of around 15 percent, which is roughly in line with the decline in the global new car market in 2020.
China, which remained by far the most important market for Volkswagen, accounted for nearly half of all global VW brand sales in 2020. The Chinese market performed markedly better than other large car markets in 2020 to assist VW’s bottom line.
In Europe, VW sales were down by nearly a quarter and the VW brand met the EU CO2 emission target for 2020. In Germany, Volkswagen’s market share shrunk to 18% in 2020.
Global Volkswagen Brand Electric Car Sales in 2020
In 2020, Volkswagen delivered a record number of electric vehicles worldwide. VW handed over more than 212,000 electric cars in total (+158 percent versus 2019), including nearly 134,000 battery electric vehicles (+197 percent versus 2019).
Volkswagen Passenger Cars launched nine new electric and plug-in hybrid models in 2020. This brought the share of BEV and hybrid vehicles in Europe up to 12.4 percent of the brand’s total deliveries – after 2.3 percent in 2019. The most popular electric model was the ID.3 with 56,500 units sold – even though this only came on the market in September – followed by the e-Golf with around 41,300 units and the Passat GTE with approximately 24,000 units.
Some 68,800 units of the ID.3 were ordered in 2020 and more than 56,500 have already been delivered to customers – including to some 14,400 customers in Germany. The ID.3 was the best-selling battery-electric car in Finland, Slovenia and Norway in December. In Sweden, the ID.3 was actually the top-selling car in December 2020 in absolute numbers – regardless of the type of drive. In the Netherlands and Germany, Volkswagen Passenger Cars managed to leap to the number one spot in all-electric vehicles over the full-year 2020 – with a share of 23.8 percent in Germany in the BEV market and 23 percent in the Netherlands.
However, in 2020, the Renault Zoe was the best-selling electric car in Europe with sales of just over 100,000 vehicles.
The breakthrough of electric mobility was also evident in the German fleet market, where the share of BEV and PHEV vehicles ordered increased to around 22 percent in total, up from around 2 percent in 2018 and some 5 percent in 2019. Volkswagen was the leading electric car brand in Germany in 2020 with a market share of 24%, although the Renault Zoe was the top-selling model (for the fourth year running but probably not again in 2021).
Following closely on the heels of the ID.3, Volkswagen’s second all-electric model, the ID.4 is being successively launched. It is the brand’s first all-electric world car and as an SUV is also right in line with customer trends: the share of SUVs of Volkswagen’s total deliveries worldwide rose from 29.8 percent in 2019 to 34.8 percent in 2020. The VW Tiguan is the top-selling Volkswagen model worldwide.
Global Worldwide Car Sales by Brand in 2020 (Full Year)
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Global worldwide car sales by brand in 2020 (Full Year):
- Audi
- Bentley
- BMW (including Mini & Rolls Royce)
- Daihatsu (see Toyota)
- Hyundai
- Ferrari
- Kia
- Lamborghini
- Lexus (see Toyota)
- Mazda
- Mercedes-Benz (including Smart)
- Mini
- Nissan
- PSA Group (Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Opel / Vauxhall)
- Porsche
- Renault Group (including Dacia)
- Rolls-Royce
- Skoda
- Tesla
- Toyota (including Lexus, Daihatsu, Hino)
- Volkswagen (VW Car Brand)
- Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (VWCV)
- Volkswagen Group
- Volvo
“Sales” as reported by brands generally refer to deliveries and not necessarily sales to the customer and final registration. Terms and definitions may vary.
