BERLIN (Reuters) -The Volkswagen Group reported a 14.3% rise in fourth quarter sales on Thursday but failed to turn around a significant drop in output in the first half of 2022, registering an overall decrease of 7% in full-year sales.
Sales by the carmaker were up 12% in the second half of the year but full-year output figures were dragged down by an output drop of over a fifth in the first half as the war in Ukraine upended supply chains and COVID-19 shuttered plants in China.
Still, it maintained its position as Europe’s top battery-electric vehicle maker and registered a 26% rise in all-electric sales globally, boosted by an increase of almost two-thirds in China.
The carmaker is aiming for all-electric sales in 2023 to be 11% of total sales, a stepping stone to its 2030 target of making half of all sales fully electric.
Sales of premium brands Audi, Lamborghini and Bentley also did particularly well in the fourth quarter, rising 26.1% from the same period last year.
Sales committee member Hildegard Wortmann said the company was confident about 2023 despite a weakening macroeconomic environment and ongoing supply chain shortages.
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, editing by Rachel More)
