On Tuesday, Volkswagen announced it has begun assembly of the ID.4 electric compact SUV in their Chattanooga, TN plant. They plan to bump up production throughout this year and into next year, pushing to produce 7,000 units per month by the end of this year.
Batteries for the vehicles are being supplied by SK Innovation and produced in Georgia, meaning much of the production for these EVs is located in the Southeast. We wondered how this compared geographically to demand for this model. Would units need to travel across the country in order to find a market?
We looked at sales data for Volkswagen ID.4 over the past 30 days, as well as inventory count by VIN for this model.
Where are ID.4 selling?
Right now, California leads in sales of the Volkswagen electric SUV. California also currently has the most ID.4s on dealer lots, holding just under 20% of the country’s current inventory.
However, the next 7 states where ID.4s are selling the most units are East Coast states: NJ, FL, MA, NC, NY, MD, and VA. And it doesn’t appear that supply is meeting demand there, either. All of those states have fewer units available for purchase than have been purchased in the past 30 days.
Contrast that to several states further west: Colorado currently has 190 units available, but has only sold 10 in the past month. Washington has 163 units for sale, but has only sold 31. Oregon has 71 units, but has only sold 6.
Will Volkswagen need to ship ID.4 units out of Tennessee and across the country? Of course. California continues to be a huge customer for these vehicles. However, not all of the electric SUVs will need to travel so far: there continues to be a valuable market close to production on the East Coast and the South.
