BMW sold a quarter more battery-powered cars worldwide and broke the symbolic mark of one million electric cars. Volkswagen collected more than twice as many orders for electric cars as in the previous year.
And this despite the market weakness in Germany: after the end of the state environmental bonus, new registrations fell by 29 percent in March. But things went better in China, where sales rose by 76 percent, particularly for the luxury brand Porsche. In the rival Mercedes, on the other hand, the engine stuttered with all drive types. With 463,000 vehicles in the quarter, the Swabians sold around eight percent less than a year ago. In total, VW delivered 2.1 million vehicles to customers in the first quarter, 3.1 percent more than ayear ago. An increase of four percent in cars and trucks with combustion engines more than offset the decline in fully electric vehicles. A VW spokesman also blamed bottlenecks in the supply of electric motors from the Kassel plant, which led to production breaks. Car expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer spoke of bleak prospects.