Audi BEV sales up 47% in the US in 2022 while ICE sales flounder

Audi of America released its fourth quarter business update today that reveals delivery numbers of all its models for the last year. And, like much of the auto industry, the company’s BEV sales are growing while ICE car sales floundered in 2022.

Audi’s BEV 2022 sales

Audi announced total sales of 186,875 cars in 2022, which is down 5% from 196,038 in 2021. But the company’s electric car sales continue to grow at double-digit rates, rising by 47% to 16,177 in 2022, up from 10,985 in 2021.

In 2022, Audi released two new electric SUVs, the Q4 e-tron and Q4 e-tron Sportback. The company booked a few deliveries of these cars in 2021, but those vehicles were “launch preparation vehicles.” Actual customer deliveries began in earnest in 2022.

That situation is reflected in Q4 e-tron deliveries that jumped from 45 in 2021 to 1,872 in 2022, a 4,060% year-over-year increase.

Q4 e-tron Sportback went from 19 deliveries in 2021 to 541 in 2022. That’s a 2,747% year-over-year increase.

Audi’s original e-tron SUV declined in sales near the end of the year, with 1,145 deliveries compared to 1,981 the previous year, as some customers shifted to purchasing the smaller and more affordable Q4 e-tron instead as the model became more available.

But overall, over the course of the year, sales of all of Audi’s electric offerings went up, and sales of most of the company’s gas offerings went down, with the exception of the A3, A5, and Q5.

Audi’s fourth quarter 2021 results were greatly impacted by supply chain challenges. It saw 33,184 sales, which was 46.9% down year-over-year. But the e-tron saw an 86.2% increase, going from 1,064 deliveries in 2020 to 1,981.

Electrek’s Take

Are these numbers still small? Sure. But the trajectories are telling the story of where we’re going. It’s inevitable. Electric car sales are being boosted by rapid deployment of electric vehicle chargers, federal Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, and rebates at the state and local level.

But we can do better. In 2021, 5.6% of the cars Audi sold in the United States were e-tron. This year, that percentage is 8.7%. That’s still in the single digit range, and we should do better than that.

The vast majority of Audi cars sold in 2022 were gas cars, and those cars will continue to pollute for a good number of years.

Some utilities are even giving rebates: I got a $1,500 check from Green Mountain Power in Vermont as a thank you for buying a VW ID.4. The company also sent me a free ChargePoint EV wall charger, and I get special reduced rates when I use it.

Next year those EV delivery numbers will be significantly larger. Audi considers itself a leader in electrification – it’s had double-digit percent increases for the last few years – so we’re intrigued to see what it achieves over the next year.

Read more: Audi is converting all factories to produce EVs as it phases out gas cars

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