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Volkswagen says it won’t cut prices to hold onto market share in China, where sales of its electric vehicles plunged in the first quarter amid intensifying competition.
Europe’s largest carmaker said Thursday that it delivered 141,000 electric vehicles in the first quarter — a 42% increase on the same period last year and accounting for 7% of total deliveries. Meanwhile, sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles increased 9% to 55,756 units. Overall, deliveries climbed 7.5% to more than 2 million units.
The automaker’s earnings were helped by a recovery in sales volumes in Europe and North America, which offset a decline in China.
Sales of all vehicles in Volkswagen’s largest market slid nearly 15% on an “already weaker preceding year,” the company said in an earnings report. “In addition to parts supply shortages, the increasing intensity of competition had a negative impact in the reporting period.”
Volkswagen delivered around 25% fewer electric vehicles than a year ago to customers in China, where its business has suffered from a price war sparked by Tesla
(TSLA).
