A total of 472,300 electric vehicles were delivered in the EU, Norway and Iceland in 2021, 64% above the previous year, Volkswagen said in a statement.

The proportion of battery-electric and hybrid vehicles among total sales grew to 17.2% from 10.1% the year before.

BMW and Daimler have said that preliminary figures showed they had also met European emissions targets, but neither has yet released specific figures.

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Editing by Miranda Murray)