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Volkswagen Group sales down 15% in pandemic year, but EV sales up 214%

FRANKFURT, Germany — German automaker Volkswagen said its global sales fell 15.2% during 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but showed significant recovery toward the end of the year. The company more than tripled its sales of battery-only vehicles. Global sales for all of Volkswagen's brands amounted to 9.3 million vehicles. The fourth quarter showed a smaller decline of 5.7% and within that quarter the month of December was still further improved, showing a shortfall of only 3.2% from the same period the year before. Volkswagen said Wednesday that sales fell the most in Western Europe, by 21.6%, while China, the company's largest single market, was down 9.1% Sales of battery-only cars jumped 214% to 231,600 from 73,700 across all the company's brands. The company's electric sales leaders included the Volkswagen ID.3 compact, with 56,500, the Audi E-Tron SUV with 47,300, and the high-end Porsche Taycan with 20,000. Volkswagen said that its sales fell by less than the overall market, meaning it had slightly expanded its market share. “The COVID-19 pandemic made 2020 an extremely challenging year,” said group sales chief Christian Dahlheim. “The Volkswagen Group performed well in this environment and strengthened its market position." Volkswagen Group's brands include Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, SEAT, and Skoda as sell as truck makers MAN and Scania.

Audi reveals driver lineup and livery for Rolex 24 at Daytona

Audi has announced driver lineups for its customer teams running the R8 LMS GTD in this year's Rolex 24 at Daytona. The Rolex 24 is the first event for the inaugural season of the new United SportsCar Championship series, which merges the old Grand-Am Series with the American Le Mans Series. The new series kicks off January 25.
Flying Lizard Motorsports, which has traditionally been known for repping the Porsche 911, will campaign a pair of R8 coupes, while GMG Racing, Paul Miller Racing and Fall-Line Motorsports will run one car each. A number of drivers on each team are Audi Sport factory drivers, hot shoes like Oliver Jarvis for Fall-Line and Filipe Albuquerque and Dion von Moltke for Flying Lizard, while there are also a few Audi Sport customer drivers.
"We have a fantastic group of racing partners and drivers this season and look forward to defending last year's Daytona win," said president of Audi of America, Scott Keogh. "The successes of the R8 in endurance racing are a testament to the engineering found in every Audi on the road today."

2013 Audi S8

Italy To Monaco In Ingolstadt's Crushing Performance Saloon
I had an engagement a while back with the Audi RS5 Cabriolet in Monaco, and getting me from my lair in northern Italy by plane connection is an utter waste of time since the first flight is always to either Paris, Zurich, or Rome, three cities not at all on the way to Monaco. So I phoned Audi Italia about a quick loan of a car for the three-hour-ish drive to this event, and they were simpatici enough to propose that I keep whatever they gave me for two weeks. And what they gave me was a loaded Audi S8 with properly chosen 20-inch Dunlop SP Winter Sport treads attached.
This was about to be a much cooler two weeks than I had planned.