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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.

Watch Evo pick its 2015 Car of the Year in this epic video

With just a few days left in 2015, it's the perfect time to check out Evo's annual Car of the Year test to determine the greatest performance vehicle of the last 12 months. The writers' picks for the 11 finalists spanned a breadth of engaging models and included: Peugeot 208 GTi by Peugeot Sport, Lamborghini Aventador SV, Seat Leon Cupra Sub8, McLaren 675LT, Porsche 991 GT3 RS, Porsche Cayman GT4, Honda Civic Type R, Ferrari 488 GTB, Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, Lotus Evora 400, and Mercedes-AMG GT S. For the venue to test the mettle of these performance machines, Evo stuck close to home this year and visited the twisting roads at the beautiful north coast of Scotland. Racing brothers Marino and Dario Franchitti also came along for the ride to provide two more voices in the competitive challenge to determine a winner. Evo's video explains why each model deserves to be among such rarified company but doesn't gloss over their faults either. There can be only one winner, though. We don't want to spoil it, so check out the clip for magnificent views of these performance machines through the Scottish countryside.

Lamborghini chief stands by V12s

Despite the push for fuel efficiency and low carbon emissions, the V12 is still a staple of high performance. Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Aston Martin, and yes, Lamborghini maintain fleets of these monstrous dinosaur engines. And for the final entry on that list, that's not going to change. Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali sat down with Autocar and explained in no uncertain terms that his company will continue to offer V12s for the time being. "Our major customers and dealers around the world say: 'Please do not touch the V12'," Domenicali told Autocar. "So we will continue to work in that direction." But there's more than just customer demand driving Lambo's V12 loyalty. According to Domenicali, the company's niche is small enough to weather V12-ruining storms. "In the short term, there is still a lot of development potential in the V12," Domenicali told Autocar. "Of course, we need to understand what the market is doing in terms of emissions and legislation, but I don't see that will be a problem. We are always very open to how the market might evolve." That evolution, lately, has tended toward electrification. The flagship of Lambo's arch-nemesis Ferrari pairs a 12-cylinder engine with a hybrid system for blistering performance. Then there's the stuff happening with the V8-powered Porsche 918 Spyder and McLaren P1. These three hybrids are in an entirely different and more potent performance (and price) class than Lamborghini's hottest model, the Aventador LP750-4 SV. Hybrids are the future of performance, for Lamborghini included... Eventually. "We cannot be disconnected to the world of the future but we want to be balanced," Domenicali said. "We need to make sure that as soon as the technology of electrification is relevant to our car at a cost level, and will add value, we are flexible to shift in that direction." Finally, Domenicali addressed advanced connectivity systems while parrying Autocar's question about autonomous vehicles. "If you own a Lamborghini, you want to have the passion of driving it and we need to keep that. But new technology could have some relevance to the driver. For example, if you are on a race track, you could have a head-up display which shows you how to maximize your performance [around a corner], using the telemetry we have now," Domenicali told AC. "That's an approach where I see that technology could be very useful for our customer." Related Video: