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.
Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni introduce Phia, a fashion tech startup that helps users find price comparisons and discover alternative options for apparel
Universal Music Group and AI platform Udio have settled a copyright lawsuit and will collaborate on a new music creation and streaming platform. The companies announced on Wednesday that they reached a compensatory legal settlement and new licensing agreements. These agreements aim to provide more revenue opportunities for Universal's artists and songwriters. The rise of AI song generation tools like Udio has disrupted the music streaming industry, leading to accusations from record labels. This deal marks the first since Universal and others sued Udio and Suno last year. Financial terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.
Microsoft says users of its Azure cloud portal may be not be able to access Office 365, Minecraft or other services due to issues with its global content delivery network services. The tech company posted a note to its Azure status page that its teams are currently deploying a fix to address the outage.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
A new poll finds that as the United States rapidly builds massive data centers for the development of artificial intelligence, many Americans are concerned about the environmental impact.
Brain.fm merges music and neuroscience to enhance focus, creativity, and mental health—Dr. Kevin Woods reveals how sound is transforming cognitive performance.
An internet outage on Monday morning highlights the reliance on Amazon's cloud services. This incident reveals vulnerabilities in the concentrated system. Cloud computing allows companies to rent Amazon's infrastructure instead of building their own. Amazon leads the market, followed by Google and Microsoft. The outage originated in Northern Virginia, the biggest and oldest cloud hub in the U.S. This region handles significantly more data than other hubs. Despite the idea of spreading workloads, many rely on this single hub. The demand for computing power, especially for AI, is driving a construction boom for data centers.
Ashley Fieglein Johnson, CFO & President at Planet, joins us to share the story behind the Owl launch—and how strategy, tech, and vision are fueling liftoff.
OpenAI has announced that ChatGPT will soon engage in "erotica for verified adults." CEO Sam Altman says the company aims to allow more user freedom for adults while setting limits for teens. OpenAI isn't the first to explore sexualized AI, but previous attempts have faced legal and societal challenges. Altman believes OpenAI isn't the "moral police" and wants to differentiate content similar to how Hollywood differentiates R-rated movies. This move could help OpenAI, which is losing money, turn a profit. However, experts express concerns about the impact on real-world relationships and the potential for misuse.
