Due to high demand and supply constraints, Volkswagen Group (VLKPF), Tesla’s main global competitor, has sold out of electric cars in the United States and Europe this year.
“We’re not sold out because we can’t make cars… we’re sold out for electric cars because demand is stronger than predicted,” CEO Herbert Diess said at the Financial Times’ automotive conference on Monday.
The business, which owns many brands including Porsche and Audi, announced last week that it had a backlog of 300,000 electric vehicle orders in Western Europe alone.
Customers who place orders now in select areas can expect to receive their automobiles next year, according to a company representative.
In the first quarter, the Volkswagen Group sold more than 99,000 electric vehicles worldwide, rising 65 percent over the same period last year. The Audi e-tron and the ID.3 and ID.4 models were among the company’s most popular vehicles.
Volkswagen continues to lag behind Tesla, which delivered more than three times as many electric vehicles during the same time period.