WOLFSBURG (dpa-AFX) - Volkswagen's core brand VW Passenger Cars sold fewer cars last year due to strained supply chains. At 4.56 million passenger cars, it delivered 6.8 percent fewer vehicles worldwide in 2022 than in the previous year, the company said Tuesday in Wolfsburg. VW made further progress with its fully electric cars, achieving a sales increase of 23.6 percent with around 330,000 battery-powered cars. In China, its most important single market, VW more than doubled deliveries of its faltering ID model family to 143,100 electric cars. For the current year, VW expects the supply situation to remain volatile, but to gradually improve, allowing for more stable production.

The order backlog remains very high, with around 640,000 customer orders across all drive types in Europe, it said. This is 18 percent more than a year ago. "Despite ongoing supply bottlenecks, we have achieved a solid sales target in 2022," VW brand sales chief Imelda Labbé said. Overall, all-terrain urban vehicles (SUVs) continue to gain ground at VW, with their share of total sales rising 4 percentage points to 45 percent. In the U.S., more than four out of five vehicles sold were already SUVs.

The Volkswagen Group is set to present its delivery figures for all vehicle brands as a whole for the previous year this Thursday (January 12)/men/jha/.