German carmaker Volkswagen said it delivered 4.56 million vehicles in 2022. This is down 6.8% from the year before, as a "strained supply situation" led to a backlog of orders.
On the upside, sales of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) were up roughly 23.6%.
"We achieved a solid sales result in 2022 despite persistent supply bottlenecks," Imelda Labbé, board member for sales, marketing and after sales for Volkswagen, said in a press release. "The pronounced growth in BEV models confirms that with our attractive product portfolio, we are on the right track to becoming the most desirable brand for sustainable mobility.”
The company said the order backlog "remains very high," with 640,000 customers having placed orders in Europe alone.
Volkswagen entered the electric vehicle market in 2020 with the ID.3, and has since delivered 580,000 units. The company announced the latest ID model, the ID.7, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week. The electric sedan is intended to help Volkswagen extend its line-up of electric vehicles into the "upper middle class high-volume segment."
"The roadmap is clear: with the ACCELERATE strategy, Volkswagen is stepping up the pace of its electric campaign with ten new electric models by 2026," the company said.
Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama says his new Cabinet will include an artificial intelligence “minister” in charge of fighting corruption. The AI, named Diella, will oversee public funding projects and combat corruption in public tenders. Diella was launched earlier this year as a virtual assistant on the government's public service platform. Corruption has been a persistent issue in Albania since 1990. Rama's Socialist Party won a fourth consecutive term in May. It aims to deliver EU membership for Albania in five years, but the opposition Democratic Party remains skeptical.
The Federal Trade Commission has launched an inquiry into several social media and artificial intelligence companies about the potential harms to children and teenagers who use their AI chatbots as companions.
Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
Online broker Robinhood Markets will join the S&P 500 index Online broker Robinhood Markets will join the S&P 500 index as its stock rides higher on a cryptocurrency wave.
Ali Kashani, CEO of Serve Robotics, dives into their $63.3M acquisition of Vayu Robotics and how it's accelerating the future of autonomous delivery systems.
