Volkswagen Group increases its BEV deliveries by 48% in the year’s first half. Also, it ups its total sales worldwide to 4,37 million (+13%) but stays prudent on forecasts because of the slower results in China and diminishing orders for BEVs in the future.

Meanwhile, there’s an actual ‘musical chair’ going on at the top management level inside the whole Group, instigated by the problems at the Cariad software daughter and a new CEO, Oliver Blume, who is positioning its confidants and performing managers at crucial function throughout the Group.

48% more BEVs

The Volkswagen Group increased its deliveries of all-electric vehicles in the first half of the year by 48% year-on-year to 321 600 units. The BEV share of total deliveries rose to 7,4%, compared to 5,6% in the first six months of 2022.

In Europe, the VW Group delivered 217 100 electric cars from January to June 2023 (128 900 in 2022), an increase of 68%, which is stronger than the global comparison. In the US, the increase was 76%, with 29 800 vehicles, but of course, much lower volumes.

China, on the other hand, is worrying Wolfsburg slightly. BEV sales in “a particularly competitive market environment” were below the previous year’s level, with 62 400 BEVs (-2%). “Recently, however, the trend here has also been positive,” Volkswagen added. VW was 25% down on the previous year in the first quarter.

Quarterly (Q2 of 2023), Europe is the most important e-market for VW with 118 900 units delivered (+68,8%), followed by China (41 000, +18,0%), the US (14 000, +55,7%) and the rest of the world (6 700, +74,7%).

Incoming orders

As mentioned, the VW Group sold 4,37 million cars worldwide in the first six months of the year, an increase of 13%. In June, however, the increase was only 5,7%, while it was still 16% in May. Inside the Group, the Volkswagen core brand is performing worse than other brands, with only growth of 7,2% for the first six months and a 2,4% decrease in June.

According to several unofficial reports, the Volkswagen brand is currently experiencing a massive problem with incoming orders: most vehicles delivered in the first half of the year were already ordered in 2022. Insiders said that incoming orders for some electric series vehicles had fallen to “close to zero”.

In its press release, the VW Group states that the “order bank in Western Europe remains good” at around 200 000 BEVs. However, the Q1 delivery report still talked of “more than 260 000 BEVs”.

Hildegard Wortmann, a member of the Extended Group Management Board for Sales, confirms that there was a significant dip, but without giving any figures.

“Since May, we have again seen an improved trend in incoming orders here, after a certain reluctance on the part of our customers at the start of the year due to reduced subsidy programs, partly long waiting times, and high inflation,” she said. “Given the recent significant reduction in delivery times, we expect this positive trend to continue in the coming months,” she added.

Musical chair

Meanwhile, Oliver Blume is organizing a sort of musical chair in his top management of the Group. We already talked about Audi CEO Markus Duesmann being replaced by Gernot Döllner, his post as the Group’s ‘chief strategist’ is now given to Stefan Weckbach, coming from Porsche.

Stefan Weckbach has been at Porsche since 2008. In 2016, Weckbach took over managing the electric Taycan series (known as “Mission E” before the model premiere), in 2021, the Cayenne series, and since 2022 has been head of the Mission X series.

So, Weckbach was responsible for the first electric model series of the Zuffenhausen company under Olivernction as Porsche CEO and was now entrusted with developing an upcoming electric flagship.

The electric hypercar Mission X (or its production version) will not achieve high unit numbers, but it will shape the brand as a flagship and presumably offer some drive innovations.

As Head of Group Strategy, Group Strategy Product, and the General Secretariat of Volkswagen AG, he will report directly to Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume. The Porsche and VW Group CEO is thus filling an important position with a confidant – and a developer with plenty of eMobility experience, who pushed through the development of an electric model at Porsche against the combustion faction in the company.

In addition to Weckbach, several other top positions have also been filled. In May, Cariad boss Dirk Hilgenberg was already replaced by Bentley production board member Peter Bosch. It is inevitable that André Stoffels, currently First Vice President (Finance) FAW-VW Automotive in China, will take over Thomas Sedran’s position as CFO at Cariad.

A successor for Bosch at Bentley in Crewe has also been found… in Ingolstadt. Andreas Lehe, the current Head of Strategic Planning for Audi’sProduction & Logistics Division at Audi, will be the new Bentley Production Director. It is not known who will take over his duties in Ingolstadt.

The head of Group Quality will also be replaced after less than a year. Michael Neumayer was only promoted to this position in December 2022 but will retire in September. Simon Bracco, Head of Corporate Quality at Audi, will take over the task at the Group level in addition to his function at Audi.

Finally, there will also be changes in the management board at VW’s internal supplier division VW Group Components, and VW Commercial Vehicles.