Tesla tops EV registrations in Germany, beating VW

BERLIN — Tesla topped registrations of battery-electric vehicles in Germany in the first nine months of this year at nearly 38,500, federal data showed, beating the Volkswagen brand by around 6,000 vehicles.

Tesla’s battery-electric registrations jumped nearly 50% from the January-September period last year, while Volkswagen’s dropped 40% to just over 32,300 in line with a broader drop across most of the Volkswagen Group brands in Europe’s biggest car market.

Only Audi and Seat saw an increase in the number of electric cars registered in Germany among Volkswagen Group brands, the data from the federal motor transport authority showed.

Globally, Volkswagen Group saw total deliveries of its battery-electric vehicles rise 25% in January-September from a year earlier, figures released by the carmaker last week showed.

But supply chain bottlenecks have hit the carmaker particularly hard in Europe, where inflation and rising energy costs are also weighing on demand.

Across all vehicle types — combustion engine, hybrid and electric — deliveries of Volkswagen Group vehicles globally fell 12.9% this year, the carmaker reported last week, with Europe the hardest-hit region.

“The tense situation of component supply has repeatedly led to adjustments in production. We expect a stabilization of supply over the course of the coming year,” a Volkswagen spokesperson said of the data.

Tesla has seen record deliveries globally but also battled with logistical challenges and delivered less in the third quarter than analysts had expected.

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Susan Fenton)